Countries by intentional homicide rate
El Salvador had the highest intentional homicide rate of 148 countries in 2009, at 72.5 per 100,000 people. Liechtenstein had the lowest, at 0 per 100,000 people. The median was 3.2 per 100,000 people and the figure for the World was 6.1 per 100,000 people. Source: the World Bank.
Top 40 countries, 2009
Full ranking
| Rank | Countries | 2009 | Change on 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Salvador | 72.5 | +19.7 pts |
| 2 | Honduras | 64.5 | +8.9 pts |
| 3 | Jamaica | 61.5 | +2.1 pts |
| 4 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 57.5 | +8.4 pts |
| 5 | Venezuela | 49.2 | -2.8 pts |
| 6 | U.S. Virgin Islands | 46.8 | +3.8 pts |
| 7 | Guatemala | 45.7 | +0.6 pts |
| 8 | Trinidad and Tobago | 36.8 | -3.1 pts |
| 9 | Colombia | 35.7 | -1.2 pts |
| 10 | South Africa | 32.4 | -3 pts |
| 11 | Belize | 31 | -2.8 pts |
| 12 | Brazil | 26.8 | +0.5 pts |
| 13 | Puerto Rico | 25.6 | +2.3 pts |
| 14 | Dominican Republic | 24.5 | -0.5 pts |
| 15 | Bahamas | 24 | +3.6 pts |
| 16 | Saint Lucia | 23 | -0.1 pts |
| 17 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 20.8 | +6.4 pts |
| 18 | Antigua and Barbuda | 19 | -0.3 pts |
| 19 | Dominica | 18.9 | +8.7 pts |
| 20 | Namibia | 18.7 | +1.4 pts |
| 21 | Ecuador | 17.7 | -0.2 pts |
| 22 | Greenland | 17.7 | +3.6 pts |
| 23 | Mexico | 17.7 | +5 pts |
| 24 | Eswatini | 16.9 | -2.8 pts |
| 25 | Panama | 15.8 | +1.7 pts |
| 26 | Guyana | 15.6 | -5.4 pts |
| 27 | Cayman Islands | 15.2 | +7.4 pts |
| 28 | Seychelles | 15 | +8.5 pts |
| 29 | Botswana | 14.5 | +0.1 pts |
| 30 | Paraguay | 14.5 | -0.4 pts |
| 31 | Nicaragua | 14.2 | +1 pts |
| 32 | Russia | 12.3 | -0.4 pts |
| 33 | Costa Rica | 11.7 | +0.1 pts |
| 34 | Kazakhstan | 10.7 | -0.3 pts |
| 35 | Uganda | 10.3 | +1.1 pts |
| 36 | Philippines | 9.6 | +3.4 pts |
| 37 | Bermuda | 9.4 | +1.5 pts |
| 38 | Papua New Guinea | 9.4 | +1 pts |
| 39 | Iraq | 8.5 | -7.4 pts |
| 40 | Samoa | 8.4 | |
| 41 | Mongolia | 8.2 | +0.2 pts |
| 42 | Lithuania | 8 | -1.4 pts |
| 43 | Kyrgyzstan | 7.9 | -0.1 pts |
| 44 | Tonga | 7.5 | +3.7 pts |
| 45 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 7 | -0.3 pts |
| 46 | Barbados | 6.9 | -1.5 pts |
| 47 | Uruguay | 6.8 | +0.1 pts |
| 48 | Cameroon | 6.7 | +2.5 pts |
| 49 | Moldova | 6.6 | +0.4 pts |
| 50 | Argentina | 6.5 | +0.6 pts |
| 51 | Pakistan | 6.4 | +0.1 pts |
| 52 | Grenada | 6.3 | -8.1 pts |
| 53 | Haiti | 6.2 | +0.9 pts |
| 54 | Zambia | 6 | +0.7 pts |
| 55 | Thailand | 5.4 | -0.4 pts |
| 56 | Georgia | 5.4 | -1.3 pts |
| 57 | Sri Lanka | 5.3 | -4.4 pts |
| 58 | Estonia | 5.2 | -1.2 pts |
| 59 | Belarus | 5.1 | -0.7 pts |
| 60 | Cuba | 5 | +0.4 pts |
| 61 | United States | 5 | -0.4 pts |
| 62 | Ukraine | 4.8 | -0.5 pts |
| 63 | Kenya | 4.7 | +1.6 pts |
| 64 | Afghanistan | 4.1 | |
| 65 | Aruba | 4 | -1.1 pts |
| 66 | Yemen | 3.8 | |
| 67 | India | 3.7 | -0.1 pts |
| 68 | Chile | 3.7 | +0.2 pts |
| 69 | Liberia | 3.7 | -1 pts |
| 70 | Mozambique | 3.7 | -0.9 pts |
| 71 | American Samoa | 3.6 | -1.8 pts |
| 72 | Montenegro | 3.3 | -0.5 pts |
| 73 | Armenia | 3.3 | 0 pts |
| 74 | Fiji | 3.2 | +1.3 pts |
| 75 | New Caledonia | 3.1 | -1.2 pts |
| 76 | Timor-Leste | 3 | -0.4 pts |
| 77 | Guam | 3 | +2.4 pts |
| 78 | Mauritius | 3 | |
| 79 | Nepal | 3 | -0.3 pts |
| 80 | Lebanon | 2.9 | -0.8 pts |
| 81 | Iran | 2.9 | |
| 82 | Albania | 2.9 | -0.2 pts |
| 83 | São Tomé and Príncipe | 2.8 | -5.2 pts |
| 84 | Bangladesh | 2.8 | +0.1 pts |
| 85 | Sierra Leone | 2.6 | -0.5 pts |
| 86 | Tunisia | 2.4 | -0.3 pts |
| 87 | Cambodia | 2.3 | -0.1 pts |
| 88 | Bhutan | 2.3 | -0.3 pts |
| 89 | Finland | 2.2 | -0.3 pts |
| 90 | Malawi | 2.2 | -3.4 pts |
| 91 | Syria | 2.2 | -0.3 pts |
| 92 | Serbia | 2.1 | +0.2 pts |
| 93 | Bulgaria | 2 | -0.3 pts |
| 94 | Israel | 2 | +0.3 pts |
| 95 | Malaysia | 2 | -0.2 pts |
| 96 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1.8 | +0.2 pts |
| 97 | Myanmar | 1.8 | +0.2 pts |
| 98 | Canada | 1.8 | -0 pts |
| 99 | Kuwait | 1.8 | +0.3 pts |
| 100 | Maldives | 1.7 | +0.2 pts |
| 101 | Ghana | 1.7 | -0.1 pts |
| 102 | Cyprus | 1.7 | +0.9 pts |
| 103 | North Macedonia | 1.7 | 0 pts |
| 104 | New Zealand | 1.6 | +0.4 pts |
| 105 | Slovakia | 1.4 | -0.2 pts |
| 106 | Jordan | 1.4 | -0.3 pts |
| 107 | Vietnam | 1.4 | +0.1 pts |
| 108 | Hungary | 1.4 | -0.4 pts |
| 109 | Oman | 1.4 | -0.4 pts |
| 110 | Greece | 1.4 | +0.1 pts |
| 111 | Morocco | 1.3 | 0 pts |
| 112 | France | 1.3 | -0.3 pts |
| 113 | Tajikistan | 1.3 | -0.1 pts |
| 114 | Romania | 1.3 | -0.2 pts |
| 115 | Australia | 1.2 | -0 pts |
| 116 | Ireland | 1.2 | 0 pts |
| 117 | Croatia | 1.1 | -0.5 pts |
| 118 | United Kingdom | 1.1 | -0.1 pts |
| 119 | Palestine | 1.1 | -0.1 pts |
| 120 | Bahrain | 1.1 | +0.6 pts |
| 121 | South Korea | 1.1 | +0.2 pts |
| 122 | China | 1.1 | -0 pts |
| 123 | Egypt | 1 | -0.1 pts |
| 124 | Poland | 1 | +0.2 pts |
| 125 | Luxembourg | 1 | -0.6 pts |
| 126 | Sweden | 1 | +0.1 pts |
| 127 | Germany | 1 | -0 pts |
| 128 | Italy | 1 | -0 pts |
| 129 | Malta | 1 | -0.5 pts |
| 130 | Kiribati | 0.9 | -5.8 pts |
| 131 | Netherlands | 0.9 | 0 pts |
| 132 | Macao | 0.9 | +0.2 pts |
| 133 | Czechia | 0.9 | -0.2 pts |
| 134 | Burkina Faso | 0.9 | -0.1 pts |
| 135 | Spain | 0.9 | 0 pts |
| 136 | Algeria | 0.8 | -0.2 pts |
| 137 | Brunei | 0.8 | +0.5 pts |
| 138 | Hong Kong | 0.7 | +0.2 pts |
| 139 | Switzerland | 0.7 | |
| 140 | Slovenia | 0.6 | +0.1 pts |
| 141 | Austria | 0.6 | -0.1 pts |
| 142 | Norway | 0.6 | -0.1 pts |
| 143 | Qatar | 0.5 | -0.3 pts |
| 144 | Singapore | 0.4 | -0.2 pts |
| 145 | Japan | 0.4 | -0.1 pts |
| 146 | French Polynesia | 0.4 | -3 pts |
| 147 | Iceland | 0.3 | |
| 148 | Liechtenstein | 0 | -2.8 pts |
Other periods
About this ranking
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people: unlawful deaths inflicted on a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury. World Bank series from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Excludes deaths in armed conflict. Countries record and classify killings differently, and not every country reports every year, so coverage is uneven.
Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the countries are compared on one definition. 46 countries with data in other periods have no value for 2009 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.
How to cite
World Bank, World Development Indicators. Intentional homicides, per 100,000 people (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5. Retrieved 2026-10-11.Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Rank Countries by intentional homicide rate using official data, and cite the source.
rank_places {"indicator":"homicide_rate","level":"country","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=homicide_rate&level=country&limit=10Questions
Which country has the highest intentional homicide rate?
El Salvador, with 72.5 per 100,000 people in 2009, according to the World Bank.
Which country has the lowest intentional homicide rate?
Liechtenstein, with 0 per 100,000 people in 2009.
Where does this ranking come from?
Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: World Bank, Intentional homicides, per 100,000 people (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5). Retrieved 2026-10-11. 46 countries have no value for 2009 and are not ranked.