US Counties With the Highest Homicide Rate, Annual
401 US counties ranked by homicide rate, annual, from highest to lowest. First are Holmes County, MS (95.1), Leflore County, MS (87.2) and Oglala Lakota County, SD (81.9). The middle one of the 401 has 7.92.
What this measures
Deaths recorded as homicide in the year, per 100,000 residents, from death certificates (CDC WONDER). It is shown only for places and years with 10 or more homicides, so small counties appear rarely or never. Source: CDC WONDER mortality.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | deaths per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 35.9 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 18.5 |
| 3 | Louisiana | 18.3 |
| 4 | Alabama | 14 |
| 5 | New Mexico | 13.7 |
| 6 | Tennessee | 10.9 |
| 7 | Arkansas | 10.6 |
| 8 | South Carolina | 10.5 |
| 9 | Missouri | 9.88 |
| 10 | Georgia | 9.67 |
| 11 | Maryland | 9.42 |
| 12 | Illinois | 9.33 |
| 13 | Alaska | 8.32 |
| 14 | North Carolina | 8.19 |
| 15 | Nevada | 8.08 |
| 16 | Indiana | 7.62 |
| 17 | Ohio | 7.37 |
| 18 | Oklahoma | 7.23 |
| 19 | Arizona | 7.15 |
| 20 | Texas | 7.08 |
| 21 | Pennsylvania | 7.05 |
| 22 | Kentucky | 6.98 |
| 23 | Virginia | 6.61 |
| 24 | Michigan | 6.35 |
| 25 | Kansas | 6.33 |
| 26 | Colorado | 6.26 |
| 27 | Florida | 6.02 |
| 28 | Delaware | 5.33 |
| 29 | Washington | 5.3 |
| 30 | California | 5.06 |
| 31 | West Virginia | 4.97 |
| 32 | Wisconsin | 4.8 |
| 33 | Oregon | 4.44 |
| 34 | Montana | 4.41 |
| 35 | Connecticut | 4.23 |
| 36 | South Dakota | 4.13 |
| 37 | New York | 3.81 |
| 38 | Maine | 3.44 |
| 39 | Minnesota | 3.43 |
| 40 | Vermont | 3.24 |
| 41 | Nebraska | 3.23 |
| 42 | New Jersey | 3.15 |
| 43 | Iowa | 3.15 |
| 44 | Wyoming | 3.08 |
| 45 | North Dakota | 3.06 |
| 46 | Hawaii | 2.93 |
| 47 | Rhode Island | 2.74 |
| 48 | Massachusetts | 2.6 |
| 49 | Idaho | 2.49 |
| 50 | Utah | 2.22 |
| 51 | New Hampshire | 2.07 |
More on homicide rate, annual
- US Counties With the Lowest Homicide Rate, Annual
- Homicide rate, annual by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.