Chart: U.S. Homicide Rate Comes Down From Pandemic Peak

A new report from the FBI shows that the U.S. homicide rate has come down from its pandemic peak. In 2022, the government agency counted 6.3 homicides per 100,000 of U.S. population, down from 6.8 in 2021 - the equivalent of a fall of around 6 percent. While the 2021 number is an estimation due to a reporting system change, the pandemic peak in murders already began in 2020, when the FBI counted 6.5 homicides per 100,000 population, up from just 5.1 in 2019. The 2022 murder rate therefore remains above pre-pandemic levels, but still way below the very elevated rates of the early 1990s. The FBI thinks the current decrease will continue and even accelerate in 2023.

The sudden rise in murders was widely reported in 2020 and baffled experts. The proliferation of guns, pandemic stress and diminished trust in the police have all been named as possible reasons for the change. In fact, gun homicides were up 35 percent in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020, compared with a 29 percent rise of all homicides. All violent crime in the U.S., with major categories being homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 thanks to continued decreases in the occurence of rape and robbery. Aggravated assault, like homicide, spiked in the pandemic and remains elevated in 2022 despite having come down some.