US states by murders

California had the highest murders of 51 states in 2017, at 1,830. North Dakota had the lowest, at 10. The median was 222. Source: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Highest1,830California

Lowest10North Dakota

Median22251 states

Map of states, 2017

Under 40
40 to 110
110 to 220
220 to 420
420 to 590
590 and over

count, 2017. 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, 2017

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

Full ranking

Rank	States	2017 count	Change on 2016
1	California	1,830	-5.2%
2	Texas	1,405	-4.9%
3	Florida	1,057	-4.9%
4	Illinois	983	-7.4%
5	Pennsylvania	742	+10.1%
6	Ohio	741	+8.5%
7	Georgia	681	-0.1%
8	North Carolina	622	-8.3%
9	Missouri	599	+11.3%
10	Louisiana	576	+3.8%
11	Michigan	569	-7%
12	Maryland	558	+4.1%
13	New York	550	-12.6%
14	Tennessee	538	+8.7%
15	Virginia	470	-2.5%
16	Arizona	422	+8.5%
17	Alabama	419	+2.9%
18	Indiana	413	-4.2%
19	South Carolina	380	+6.1%
20	New Jersey	324	-14.3%
21	Nevada	266	+16.7%
22	Kentucky	265	0%
23	Arkansas	249	+14.7%
24	Oklahoma	243	-1.6%
25	Washington	226	+15.9%
26	Colorado	222	+17.5%
27	Wisconsin	192	-17.2%
28	Mississippi	190	-19.8%
29	Massachusetts	172	+27.4%
30	New Mexico	144	+3.6%
31	Kansas	134	+1.5%
32	District of Columbia	116	-14.7%
33	Minnesota	114	+12.9%
34	Connecticut	105	+32.9%
34	Oregon	105	-9.5%
36	Iowa	98	+34.2%
36	West Virginia	98	+15.3%
38	Utah	74	0%
39	Alaska	62	+19.2%
40	Delaware	51	-12.1%
41	Idaho	42	-14.3%
41	Nebraska	42	-14.3%
43	Montana	41	+10.8%
44	Hawaii	39	+11.4%
45	South Dakota	27	-3.6%
46	Maine	23	+15%
47	Rhode Island	21	-27.6%
48	Vermont	17	+21.4%
49	Wyoming	14	-30%
50	New Hampshire	13	-31.6%
51	North Dakota	10	-37.5%

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, 2017) [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, 2017. 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=2017. 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, 2017. 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=2017.

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, 2017 [Dataset]. Available at: https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2017 (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{federal_us_states_by_murders_2017,
  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, 2017}},
  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=2017. 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, 2017
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=2017
Y2  - 2026/10/18
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2017.
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 1,830 in 2017, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Which state has the lowest murders?

North Dakota, with 10 in 2017.

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.