List of countries by intentional homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants. The reliability of underlying national murder rate data may vary.[1] The legal definition of "intentional homicide" differs among countries. Intentional homicide may or may not include infanticide, assisted suicide or euthanasia.[2]
Intentional homicide demographics are affected by changes in trauma care, leading to changed lethality of violent assaults, so the intentional homicide rate may not necessarily indicate the overall level of societal violence.[2] They may also be under-reported for political reasons.[3][4] Another problem for the comparability of the following figures is that some data may include attempts. In general the values in these lists should not include failed attempts except when mentioned otherwise.
A study undertaken by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development estimated that there were approximately 490,000 intentional homicides in 2004. The study estimated that the global rate was 7.6 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants for 2004.[5] For the year 2012 UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) made a similar study. It reported a global average homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population.[6][7] UNODC calculated a rate of 6.9 in 2010.[8]
Murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012. 0–1 1–2 2–5 5–10 10–20 >20
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has a site called Global Study on Homicide. All data in this section comes from reports on that site.[6] Please update the UNODC tables with the most recent UNODC data. The latest UNODC report has detailed charts for homicide counts and rates by country with data from 2000 through 2012. Some countries have data through 2012, and some have data through an earlier year. Latest year for each country is indicated in the table below. Rates are calculated per 100,000 inhabitants.
Intentional homicide, as defined by UNODC, is "unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person".[6]
The UNODC report has bar charts and timeline graphs of homicide rates for subregions. But the report does not list exact rate numbers. Subregion counts are not found in the report, but may be calculated by manually totaling the counts for each country in a subregion.[6]
Note. Please do not add data from other sources. Only data from the UNODC source is used for this main table.[6] And do not add references within the table itself. This breaks row alignment between the rank column and the rest of the table. See Help:Sorting info on row numbering.
Count total, and rate per 100,000 population per year. The initial order of the countries is alphabetical within subregion. Subregions are initially in alphabetical order within regions. Reload the page to return to that initial subregion order. Click sorting buttons to sort alphabetically or numerically. Can sort in ascending or descending order. Since the source is a UNODC report the regions are based on the United Nations geoscheme. See the map to the right.
The row number column on the left sorts independently from the columns to the right of it. It is useful for ranking countries by homicide rate.
For the full table with more info and multiple years see the UNODC source.[6][7]
This chart does not use the very latest data due to differences in how intentional homicide is defined and calculated for each country. In order to have more consistent, continuous, and reliable oversight only the latest UNODC sourcing is used for this section on countries.[6]
Note:x (in the count column, mainly in the Oceania section) – From UNODC source:[6] "due to small population size the estimated count is less than 2".
"Notes" column links to notes section just below the chart. It has additional info about wars, mass murders, etc..
^Richards, Patsy (27 May 1999). "Homicide statistics, research paper 99/56"(PDF). London, UK: House of Commons of the United Kingdom library, Social and general statistics section. See page 7 for section called "Definition of the offence of homicide". See page 29 for table of nations and homicide rates for the years 1994-97. It also has further info on how homicide is defined across countries.
^ abcdefghiGlobal Study on Homicide 2013 (PDF full report). April 2014, by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). See home page for Global Study on Homicide. See 10 April 2014 press release. See full report, and its methodological annex (pages 109ff) and statistical annex (pages 121ff) at the end of it. The statistical annex has detailed charts for homicide counts and rates by country with data from 2000–2012. Use the "rotate view" command in your PDF reader. Map 7.2 on page 112 is a world map showing the latest year available for homicide count for each country or territory. Page 21 states estimated total homicides of 437,000 worldwide. Figures 1.1 and 1.2 (pages 21 and 22) have exact rates and counts by regions. Figure 1.3 on page 23 is a bar chart of homicide rates for the subregions. Figure 1.16 on page 34 shows timeline graphs by subregion.