US states by murders

California had the highest murders of 51 states in 2020, at 2,203. New Hampshire had the lowest, at 12. The median was 296. Source: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Highest2,203California

Lowest12New Hampshire

Median29651 states

Map of states, 2020

Under 40
40 to 120
120 to 300
300 to 510
510 to 790
790 and over

count, 2020. 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, 2020

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

Full ranking

Rank	States	2020 count	Change on 2019
1	California	2,203	+30.4%
2	Texas	1,931	+34.8%
3	Florida	1,290	+15%
4	Illinois	1,151	+35.3%
5	Pennsylvania	1,009	+49.3%
6	Georgia	943	+55.9%
7	North Carolina	852	+30.5%
8	Ohio	820	+40.4%
9	New York	808	+43%
10	Michigan	754	+30.9%
11	Louisiana	734	+34.2%
12	Missouri	723	+25.5%
13	Tennessee	663	+28.7%
14	Maryland	553	+1.5%
15	South Carolina	549	+20.7%
16	Virginia	524	+17.2%
17	Arizona	513	+29.2%
18	Indiana	505	+35.4%
19	Alabama	471	+20.8%
20	New Jersey	329	+25.1%
21	Kentucky	323	+41%
22	Arkansas	321	+35.4%
23	Mississippi	315	+5.7%
24	Wisconsin	308	+63%
25	Washington	301	+46.8%
26	Oklahoma	296	+7.6%
27	Colorado	294	+28.4%
28	District of Columbia	201	+21.1%
29	Minnesota	190	+49.6%
30	Nevada	180	+25%
31	New Mexico	164	-11.4%
32	Massachusetts	160	+4.6%
33	Connecticut	140	+30.8%
34	Oregon	125	+6.8%
35	West Virginia	117	+17%
36	Iowa	111	+58.6%
37	Utah	102	+32.5%
38	Kansas	100	+5.3%
39	Delaware	73	+55.3%
40	Nebraska	69	+53.3%
41	Montana	54	+68.8%
42	Alaska	49	-29%
43	Hawaii	41	+10.8%
43	Idaho	41	+46.4%
45	South Dakota	40	+150%
46	North Dakota	32	+28%
46	Rhode Island	32	+23.1%
48	Maine	22	0%
49	Wyoming	18	+38.5%
50	Vermont	14	+27.3%
51	New Hampshire	12	-63.6%

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, 2020) [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, 2020. 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=2020. 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, 2020. 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=2020.

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, 2020 [Dataset]. Available at: https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2020 (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{federal_us_states_by_murders_2020,
  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, 2020}},
  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=2020. 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, 2020
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=2020
Y2  - 2026/10/18
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2020.
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 2,203 in 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Which state has the lowest murders?

New Hampshire, with 12 in 2020.

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.