Top 10 Countries with the highest homicide rate (1990-2017)

Homicide rate is measured as the number of homicide deaths per 100,000 people.

Death rates give us an accurate comparison of differences homicide between countries and over time. In contrast to the share of deaths that we studied before, death rates are not influenced by how other causes or risk factors for death are changing.

In this map we see homicide rates across the world. Death rates measure the number of deaths per 100,000 people in a given country or region.

What becomes clear is the large differences in death rates between countries: rates are high across Latin America – in particular, El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. Rates here are often greater than 30 deaths per 100,000 – in El Salvador this was over 50 per 100,000.

Compare this with death rates across Western Europe, Japan or the Middle East: homicides were below 1 per 100,000. That’s a 50-fold difference.

Homicide is therefore a problem that is very country-specific. In many countries in the world, homicide rates are very low. But for some, homicides can be a common occurrence.

Countries in the list:

Colombia
South Africa
El Salvador
Honduras
Southern Sub-Saharan Africa
Lebanon
Guatemala
Central Latin America
Brazil
Swaziland
Latin America and Caribbean
Liberia
Somalia
Lesotho
Russia
Eastern Europe
Tropical Latin America
Venezuela
Trinidad and Tobago
Jamaica
Bahamas
Central African Republic
United States Virgin Islands
Mexico

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/homicides. IHME, Global Burden Disease
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