US states by murders

California had the highest murders of 51 states in 2023, at 1,946. Vermont had the lowest, at 17. The median was 266 and the figure for the United States was 19,907. Source: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Highest1,946California

Lowest17Vermont

Median26651 states

United States19,907History

Map of states, 2023

Under 50
50 to 150
150 to 270
270 to 480
480 to 700
700 and over

count, 2023. 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, 2023

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

Full ranking

Rank	States	2023 count	Change on 2022
1	California	1,946	-13.4%
2	Texas	1,887	-9.1%
3	Florida	1,105	-7.5%
4	North Carolina	875	+0.5%
5	Pennsylvania	873	-17.3%
6	Illinois	836	-16.1%
7	Georgia	828	-9.3%
8	Tennessee	718	+11%
9	Ohio	709	-3.8%
10	Louisiana	669	-11.7%
11	New York	654	-18.5%
12	Michigan	597	-14.3%
13	Missouri	581	-7.9%
14	Maryland	541	-10.4%
14	Virginia	541	-15.6%
16	Alabama	538	-8.5%
17	Arizona	485	-6.2%
18	South Carolina	481	-14%
19	Indiana	393	-15.8%
20	Washington	378	-5.5%
21	Colorado	318	-14.5%
22	Wisconsin	296	-8.1%
23	Arkansas	294	-6.1%
24	Kentucky	293	-10.7%
25	New Jersey	271	-14.2%
26	District of Columbia	266	+30.4%
27	Oklahoma	255	-8.9%
28	New Mexico	250	-3.5%
29	Nevada	234	+3.1%
30	Mississippi	213	-4.5%
31	Oregon	191	-5%
32	Minnesota	183	0%
33	Kansas	156	+11.4%
34	Massachusetts	150	0%
35	Connecticut	138	+1.5%
36	West Virginia	106	+11.6%
37	Iowa	79	+31.7%
37	Utah	79	+5.3%
39	Nebraska	69	+13.1%
40	Maine	60	+100%
41	Alaska	59	-15.7%
42	Idaho	50	-5.7%
43	Delaware	46	-6.1%
44	Hawaii	36	+24.1%
44	Montana	36	-30.8%
46	Rhode Island	29	+61.1%
47	North Dakota	28	n/a
48	South Dakota	26	-35%
49	New Hampshire	25	-7.4%
50	Wyoming	19	+26.7%
51	Vermont	17	-22.7%

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, 2023) [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, 2023. 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=2023. 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, 2023. 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=2023.

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, 2023 [Dataset]. Available at: https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2023 (Accessed: 18 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{federal_us_states_by_murders_2023,
  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, 2023}},
  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=2023. 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, 2023
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=2023
Y2  - 2026/10/18
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/murders/us-states?period=2023.
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 1,946 in 2023, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Which state has the lowest murders?

Vermont, with 17 in 2023.

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.