US states by murders

California had the highest murders of 51 states in 2018, at 1,739. Vermont had the lowest, at 11. The median was 214. Source: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Highest1,739California

Lowest11Vermont

Median21451 states

Map of states, 2018

Under 40
40 to 90
90 to 210
210 to 390
390 to 570
570 and over

count, 2018. 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, 2018

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

Full ranking

Rank	States	2018 count	Change on 2017
1	California	1,739	-5%
2	Texas	1,327	-5.6%
3	Florida	1,107	+4.7%
4	Illinois	902	-8.2%
5	Pennsylvania	784	+5.7%
6	Georgia	647	-5%
7	Missouri	599	0%
8	Ohio	596	-19.6%
9	North Carolina	574	-7.7%
10	New York	562	+2.2%
11	Michigan	555	-2.5%
12	Louisiana	533	-7.5%
13	Tennessee	508	-5.6%
14	Maryland	491	-12%
15	Indiana	418	+1.2%
16	Virginia	417	-11.3%
17	South Carolina	411	+8.2%
18	Alabama	383	-8.6%
18	Arizona	383	-9.2%
20	New Jersey	285	-12%
21	Kentucky	250	-5.7%
22	Washington	236	+4.4%
23	Arkansas	222	-10.8%
24	Colorado	215	-3.2%
24	Oklahoma	215	-11.5%
26	Mississippi	214	+12.6%
27	Nevada	202	-24.1%
28	Wisconsin	175	-8.9%
29	District of Columbia	160	+37.9%
30	New Mexico	153	+6.3%
31	Massachusetts	138	-19.8%
32	Kansas	122	-9%
33	Minnesota	107	-6.1%
34	Connecticut	86	-18.1%
34	Oregon	86	-18.1%
36	West Virginia	76	-22.4%
37	Iowa	70	-28.6%
38	Utah	63	-14.9%
39	Alaska	47	-24.2%
40	Delaware	46	-9.8%
41	Nebraska	44	+4.8%
42	Hawaii	40	+2.6%
43	Montana	37	-9.8%
44	Idaho	34	-19%
45	Maine	23	0%
46	New Hampshire	21	+61.5%
47	North Dakota	18	+80%
48	Rhode Island	16	-23.8%
49	Wyoming	14	0%
50	South Dakota	12	-55.6%
51	Vermont	11	-35.3%

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, 2018) [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, 2018. 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=2018. 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, 2018. 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=2018.

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, 2018 [Dataset]. Available at: https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2018 (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{federal_us_states_by_murders_2018,
  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, 2018}},
  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=2018. 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, 2018
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=2018
Y2  - 2026/10/18
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2018.
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 1,739 in 2018, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Which state has the lowest murders?

Vermont, with 11 in 2018.

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.