US states by murders

California had the highest murders of 51 states in 2016, at 1,930. Vermont had the lowest, at 14. The median was 217 and the figure for the United States was 17,413. Source: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Highest1,930California

Lowest14Vermont

Median21751 states

United States17,413History

Map of states, 2016

Under 40
40 to 100
100 to 220
220 to 390
390 to 620
620 and over

count, 2016. Source: FBI, FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All states, 2016

count. Source: FBI, FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. Retrieved 2026-10-18.

Full ranking

Rank	States	2016 count	Change on 2015
1	California	1,930	+3.7%
2	Texas	1,478	+12.2%
3	Florida	1,111	+6.7%
4	Illinois	1,061	+40.7%
5	Ohio	683	+30.8%
6	Georgia	682	+9.6%
7	North Carolina	678	+31.1%
8	Pennsylvania	674	+1.4%
9	New York	629	+2.6%
10	Michigan	612	+4.6%
11	Louisiana	555	+12.8%
12	Missouri	538	+7%
13	Maryland	536	-0.4%
14	Tennessee	495	+18.4%
15	Virginia	482	+23.6%
16	Indiana	431	+16.5%
17	Alabama	407	+17%
18	Arizona	389	+27.1%
19	New Jersey	378	+4.1%
20	South Carolina	358	-12%
21	Kentucky	265	+21%
22	Oklahoma	247	+2.9%
23	Mississippi	237	-6.3%
24	Wisconsin	232	-3.3%
25	Nevada	228	+28.1%
26	Arkansas	217	+14.8%
27	Washington	195	-10.6%
28	Colorado	189	+9.2%
29	New Mexico	139	+18.8%
30	District of Columbia	136	-16%
31	Massachusetts	135	+3.1%
32	Kansas	132	+4.8%
33	Oregon	116	+5.5%
34	Minnesota	101	-24.1%
35	West Virginia	85	0%
36	Connecticut	79	-31.9%
37	Utah	74	+29.8%
38	Iowa	73	0%
39	Delaware	58	-6.5%
40	Alaska	52	-11.9%
41	Idaho	49	+53.1%
41	Nebraska	49	-21%
43	Montana	37	-2.6%
44	Hawaii	35	+84.2%
45	Rhode Island	29	-6.5%
46	South Dakota	28	-15.2%
47	Maine	20	-13%
47	Wyoming	20	+25%
49	New Hampshire	19	+26.7%
50	North Dakota	16	-23.8%
51	Vermont	14	+40%

Other periods

About this ranking

Estimated number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters known to law enforcement. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

UCR definition: the willful killing of one human being by another, excluding deaths caused by negligence, suicides, accidents and justifiable homicides. For other countries use homicide_rate (UNODC). FBI estimates for the whole population: agencies that did not report, or reported part of the year, are filled in by the FBI. The FBI revises earlier years in each annual release, and from 2021 the estimates are built from incident-based (NIBRS) reports. The national series has no values for 2017 to 2020 in the FBI estimates file.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the states are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer. FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads. Retrieved 2026-10-18.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program. (2026). FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter (US states by murders, 2016) [Data set]. Retrieved October 18, 2026, from https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads

MLA 9

FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, US states by murders, 2016. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 14 Aug. 2026, https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2016. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program. 2026. FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. US states by murders, 2016. Dataset. Accessed October 18, 2026. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2016.

Harvard

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (2026) FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, US states by murders, 2016 [Dataset]. Available at: https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2016 (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{federal_us_states_by_murders_2016,
  author = {{Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program}},
  title = {{FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: US states by murders, 2016}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads},
  urldate = {2026-10-18},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2016. Publisher attribution: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer. FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/\#/pages/downloads. Retrieved 2026-10-18.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program
TI  - FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: US states by murders, 2016
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/14
PB  - Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/18
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2016.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer. FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads. Retrieved 2026-10-18.
ER  -

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Questions

Which state has the highest murders?

California, with 1,930 in 2016, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Which state has the lowest murders?

Vermont, with 14 in 2016.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, FBI UCR Summary Reporting System estimated crimes, 1979 on: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. Retrieved 2026-10-18.