US states by murders

California had the highest murders of 51 states in 2021, at 2,346. Vermont had the lowest, at 9. The median was 304 and the figure for the United States was 22,536. Source: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Highest2,346California

Lowest9Vermont

Median30451 states

United States22,536History

Map of states, 2021

Under 40
40 to 140
140 to 300
300 to 490
490 to 860
860 and over

count, 2021. 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, 2021

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

Full ranking

Rank	States	2021 count	Change on 2020
1	California	2,346	+6.5%
2	Texas	2,087	+8.1%
3	Illinois	1,150	-0.1%
4	Pennsylvania	1,087	+7.7%
5	North Carolina	995	+16.8%
6	Florida	937	-27.4%
7	Louisiana	907	+23.6%
8	Ohio	883	+7.7%
9	New York	871	+7.8%
10	Georgia	851	-9.8%
11	Michigan	761	+0.9%
12	Tennessee	709	+6.9%
13	Maryland	680	+23%
14	Missouri	630	-12.9%
15	South Carolina	590	+7.5%
16	Virginia	573	+9.4%
17	Indiana	490	-3%
18	Arizona	485	-5.5%
19	Alabama	476	+1.1%
20	New Jersey	381	+15.8%
21	Kentucky	374	+15.8%
22	Colorado	360	+22.4%
23	Arkansas	334	+4%
24	Wisconsin	332	+7.8%
25	Washington	331	+10%
26	Oklahoma	304	+2.7%
27	District of Columbia	274	+36.3%
27	Mississippi	274	-13%
29	New Mexico	273	+66.5%
30	Nevada	239	+32.8%
31	Oregon	204	+63.2%
32	Minnesota	203	+6.8%
33	Connecticut	155	+10.7%
34	Kansas	142	+42%
35	Massachusetts	134	-16.3%
36	West Virginia	108	-7.7%
37	Delaware	97	+32.9%
38	Utah	94	-7.8%
39	Iowa	73	-34.2%
40	Nebraska	57	-17.4%
41	Alaska	45	-8.2%
42	Idaho	43	+4.9%
43	Rhode Island	37	+15.6%
44	Montana	36	-33.3%
45	South Dakota	27	-32.5%
46	Hawaii	23	-43.9%
47	Maine	20	-9.1%
48	Wyoming	18	0%
49	North Dakota	14	-56.3%
50	New Hampshire	13	+8.3%
51	Vermont	9	-35.7%

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, 2021) [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, 2021. 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=2021. 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, 2021. 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=2021.

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, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2021 (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{federal_us_states_by_murders_2021,
  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, 2021}},
  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=2021. 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, 2021
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=2021
Y2  - 2026/10/18
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2021.
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 2,346 in 2021, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Which state has the lowest murders?

Vermont, with 9 in 2021.

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.