Murder Rate by City

While safety is an integral aspect of life, it's a metric that experiences significant disparities among regions and cities worldwide. The United States, in particular, witnesses a wide variance in safety levels, with a multifaceted range of factors contributing to these divides. According to the Global Peace Index, the United States is ranked 128th in the list of safest countries in the world. A significant contributor to this ranking is the country's murder rate. In 2018, the US had a total of 15,498 murders or a rate of 5.0 murders per 100,000 people, implying that some regions have significantly higher murder rates than others.

Key findings from the data include:

• St. Louis, MO tops the list with a significantly high murder rate of 69.4 per 100k people, followed by Baltimore, MD (51.1) and New Orleans, LA (40.6). These cities significantly exceed the national average murder rate.
• Major metropolises such as Chicago, IL (24.0), Philadelphia, PA (20.2), and Washington, D.C. (17.0) also report concerning rates. This suggests that while large population size doesn't inherently correlate with high murder rates, certain populous cities are still coping with high levels of violence.
• Of note, cities associated with tourism and entertainment like Las Vegas, NV (31.4), and New Orleans, LA (40.6), have substantially high murder rates which could be due to various factors, including the transient nature of these cities and socio-economic conditions.