US murder rate hits 100-year low as violent crime declines nationwide

WASHINGTON, DC: The United States experienced a significant drop in murders last year, with new data showing the national homicide rate falling to its lowest level in more than a century, crime analysts and researchers said on Thursday, January 22.

The decline follows years of fluctuating violent crime patterns and represents the largest single-year decrease on record.

The Council of Criminal Justice’s annual crime trends report analyzed data from 40 large cities across the country for 13 different crime types, including murder, theft, and d*ug offenses.  

Murders fell 21% last year

Data collected from 35 American cities showed a 21% decrease in the homicide rate from 2024 to 2025, translating to about 922 fewer homicides last year. 

The council collects data from police departments and other law enforcement sources.

Last year, 11 out of 13 crimes analyzed went down, including carjackings, shoplifting, aggravated assaults, and more.

D*ug crimes ticked up a bit, and sexual assaults didn’t really change between 2024 and 2025.

Experts pointed out that the same trend showed up in other cities and states, too, not just the ones in the study. Homicides and other crimes dropped there as well.

The council's report showed a decrease in the homicide rate in 31 of 35 cities, including a 40% decrease or more in Denver, Omaha, Nebraska, and Washington.

The only city included that reported a double-digit increase was Little Rock, Arkansas, where the rate increased by 16% from 2024.

Based on preliminary figures according to Axios, when nationwide data is reported by the FBI later this year, homicides in 2025 are projected to total about 4.0 deaths per 100,000 residents, a level not seen since at least 1900.

The decline represents the biggest one-year percentage drop in the murder rate on record.

Analyst perspectives on historic drop in murder rate

Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the council, a nonpartisan think tank for criminal justice policy and research, said that after historic increases in violence during the Covid-19 pandemic, this year brought historic decreases.

“It’s a dramatic drop to an absolutely astonishing level. As we celebrate it, we also need to unpack and try to understand it,” Gelb said.  “There’s never one reason crime goes up or down.”

Republicans said that tough-on-crime stances like deploying the National Guard to cities like New Orleans and the nation's capital, coupled with immigration operation surges, have all played a role in this year’s drops.

Democratic mayors are also touting their policies as playing roles in the 2025 decreases.

Jens Ludwig, a public policy professor and the director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, says that "the fact that in any individual city, we are seeing crime drop across so many neighborhoods and in so many categories means it can’t be any particular pet project in a neighborhood enacted by a mayor," Ludwig said.

Karoline Leavitt dubs it the 'Trump effect'

Sharing Axios' article on the decline in murder rate, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote, "The Trump Effect: 'Murders fell 21% last year in 35 large U.S. cities — the biggest one-year drop ever and likely the lowest rate since at least 1900.'"

In another post, she wrote, "President Trump promised to bring back Law and Order to the United States of America. This is what happens when you have a President who fully mobilizes federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals and the worst of the worst illegal aliens." 

"Promise Made. Promise Kept," Leavitt concluded.