Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) - Country Ranking
Definition: Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.
Source: UN Office on Drugs and Crime's International Homicide Statistics database.
Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 El Salvador 52.02 2018
2 Jamaica 43.85 2018
3 Lesotho 43.56 2015
4 Honduras 38.93 2018
5 Belize 37.79 2017
6 Venezuela 36.69 2018
7 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 36.54 2016
8 St. Kitts and Nevis 36.09 2012
9 South Africa 35.90 2017
10 Nigeria 34.52 2016
11 The Bahamas 31.96 2017
12 Trinidad and Tobago 30.65 2015
13 Mexico 29.07 2018
14 Brazil 27.38 2018
15 Dominica 26.59 2017
16 Colombia 25.34 2018
17 Guatemala 22.50 2018
18 St. Lucia 21.44 2018
19 Puerto Rico 21.09 2018
20 Central African Republic 20.12 2016
21 Tuvalu 18.62 2012
22 Namibia 17.68 2012
23 Botswana 15.25 2010
24 Guyana 14.25 2018
25 Seychelles 12.54 2016
26 Uruguay 12.06 2018
27 Eswatini 11.56 2017
28 Costa Rica 11.26 2018
29 Palau 11.17 2018
30 Antigua and Barbuda 11.06 2012
31 Grenada 10.82 2017
32 Uganda 10.52 2018
33 Iraq 10.07 2013
34 Dominican Republic 10.05 2018
35 Barbados 9.77 2018
36 Papua New Guinea 9.75 2010
37 Panama 9.39 2018
38 Ethiopia 8.79 2012
39 Cayman Islands 8.22 2014
40 Russia 8.21 2018
41 Peru 7.91 2017
42 Kiribati 7.52 2012
43 Zimbabwe 7.48 2012
44 Nicaragua 7.19 2016
45 Paraguay 7.14 2018
46 Cabo Verde 6.80 2018
47 Yemen 6.77 2013
48 Haiti 6.68 2018
49 Afghanistan 6.66 2018
50 Tanzania 6.48 2016
51 Philippines 6.46 2018
52 Bolivia 6.22 2016
53 Ukraine 6.18 2017
54 Mongolia 6.18 2018
55 Burundi 6.05 2016
56 Ecuador 5.80 2018
57 Suriname 5.43 2017
58 Zambia 5.37 2015
59 Argentina 5.32 2018
60 Greenland 5.32 2016
61 Sudan 5.15 2008
62 Kazakhstan 5.06 2017
63 Cuba 5.05 2016
64 United States 4.96 2018
65 Kenya 4.93 2018
66 Angola 4.85 2012
67 Lithuania 4.57 2018
68 Niger 4.43 2012
69 Chile 4.40 2018
70 Latvia 4.36 2018
71 Turkmenistan 4.22 2006
72 Moldova 4.10 2018
73 Timor-Leste 4.10 2015
74 Pakistan 3.88 2018
75 Solomon Islands 3.77 2008
76 Mozambique 3.51 2011
77 Liberia 3.26 2012
78 São Tomé and Principe 3.25 2011
79 New Caledonia 3.20 2009
80 Samoa 3.15 2013
81 India 3.08 2018
82 Tunisia 3.06 2012
83 Mauritius 2.92 2018
84 Liechtenstein 2.64 2018
85 Turkey 2.59 2018
86 Thailand 2.58 2017
87 Rwanda 2.58 2015
88 Egypt 2.55 2012
89 Iran 2.50 2014
90 Lebanon 2.49 2018
91 Hungary 2.49 2017
92 Sri Lanka 2.42 2018
93 Belarus 2.39 2018
94 Bangladesh 2.37 2018
95 Fiji 2.31 2014
96 Nepal 2.30 2016
97 Albania 2.29 2018
98 Myanmar 2.26 2016
99 Montenegro 2.23 2018
100 Georgia 2.22 2018
101 Azerbaijan 2.20 2018
102 Kyrgyz Republic 2.19 2018
103 Malaysia 2.13 2013
104 Estonia 2.12 2018
105 Ghana 2.09 2017
106 Cambodia 1.84 2011
107 Kuwait 1.82 2012
108 Malawi 1.81 2012
109 Canada 1.76 2018
110 Sierra Leone 1.73 2015
111 Armenia 1.69 2018
112 Belgium 1.69 2017
113 Tajikistan 1.64 2011
114 Finland 1.63 2018
115 Malta 1.59 2018
116 Vietnam 1.53 2011
117 Israel 1.49 2017
118 Morocco 1.42 2018
119 Cameroon 1.39 2017
120 Algeria 1.36 2015
121 Jordan 1.36 2017
122 Bulgaria 1.30 2018
123 Romania 1.28 2018
124 Saudi Arabia 1.27 2017
125 Cyprus 1.26 2018
126 Burkina Faso 1.25 2017
127 Serbia 1.23 2018
128 United Kingdom 1.20 2018
129 North Macedonia 1.20 2018
130 France 1.20 2018
131 Bhutan 1.19 2018
132 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1.17 2018
133 Guinea-Bissau 1.15 2017
134 Slovak Republic 1.14 2018
135 Uzbekistan 1.14 2017
136 Benin 1.13 2017
137 Sweden 1.08 2018
138 Denmark 1.01 2018
139 Tonga 0.97 2012
140 Austria 0.97 2018
141 Germany 0.95 2018
142 Greece 0.94 2018
143 Australia 0.89 2018
144 Iceland 0.89 2018
145 Syrian Arab Republic 0.88 2018
146 Ireland 0.87 2018
147 Portugal 0.79 2018
148 New Zealand 0.74 2017
149 Poland 0.73 2018
150 Hong Kong SAR, China 0.65 2018
151 Spain 0.62 2018
152 Czech Republic 0.62 2017
153 Korea 0.60 2018
154 Switzerland 0.59 2018
155 Netherlands 0.59 2018
156 Croatia 0.58 2018
157 Italy 0.57 2018
158 China 0.53 2018
159 Bahrain 0.52 2014
160 Brunei 0.49 2013
161 Slovenia 0.48 2018
162 Norway 0.47 2018
163 United Arab Emirates 0.46 2017
164 Indonesia 0.43 2017
165 Qatar 0.37 2014
166 Luxembourg 0.34 2017
167 Macao SAR, China 0.32 2018
168 Oman 0.27 2018
169 Senegal 0.27 2015
170 Japan 0.26 2018
171 Singapore 0.16 2018
172 Monaco 0.00 2015
172 San Marino 0.00 2011
172 Andorra 0.00 2015
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Development Relevance: In some regions, organized crime, drug trafficking and the violent cultures of youth gangs are predominantly responsible for the high levels of homicide. There has been a sharp increase in homicides in some countries, particularly in Central America, are making the activities of organized crime and drug trafficking more visible. Greater use of firearms is often associated with the illicit activities of organized criminal groups, which are often linked to drug trafficking. Knowledge of the patterns and causes of violent crime are crucial to forming preventive strategies. Young males are the group most affected by violent crime in all regions, particularly in the Americas. Yet women of all ages are the victims of intimate partner and family-related violence in all regions and countries. Indeed, in many of them, it is within the home where a woman is most likely to be killed. Data on intentional homicides are from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which uses a variety of national and international sources on homicides - primarily criminal justice sources as well as public health data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization - and the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems to present accurate and comparable statistics. The UNODC defines homicide as "unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person." This definition excludes deaths arising from armed conflict.
Limitations and Exceptions: Statistics reported to the United Nations in the context of its various surveys on crime levels and criminal justice trends are incidents of victimization that have been reported to the authorities in any given country. That means that this data is subject to the problems of accuracy of all official crime data. The survey results provide an overview of trends and interrelationships between various parts of the criminal justice system to promote informed decision-making in administration, nationally and internationally. The degree to which different societies apportion the level of culpability to acts resulting in death is also subject to variation. Consequently, the comparison between countries and regions of "intentional homicide", or unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person, is also a comparison of the extent to which different countries deem that a killing be classified as such, as well as the capacity of their legal systems to record it. Caution should therefore be applied when evaluating and comparing homicide data.
Statistical Concept and Methodology: The definitions used to produce data are in line with the homicide definition used in the UNODC Homicide Statistics dataset. On the basis of these selection criteria and subject to data availability, a long and continuous time series including recent data on homicide counts and rates has been identified or created at country level. Data included in the dataset correspond to the original value provided by the source of origin, since no statistical procedure or modeling was used to change collected values or to create new or revised figures. The intentional killing of a human being by another is the ultimate crime. Its indisputable physical consequences manifested in the form of a dead body also make it the most categorical and calculable. All existing data sources on intentional homicides, both at national and international level, stem from either criminal justice or public health systems. In the former case, data are generated by law enforcement or criminal justice authorities in the process of recording and investigating a crime event. In the latter, data are produced by health authorities certifying the cause of death of an individual. Criminal justice data were collected through UNODC regular collections of crime data from Member States, through publicly available data produced by national government sources and from data compiled by other international and regional agencies, including from Interpol, Eurostat, the Organization of American States and UNICEF. Public health data on homicides were mainly derived from databases on deaths by cause disseminated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The inclusion of recent data was given a higher priority in the selection process than the length of the time series (number of years covered). An analysis of official reports and research literature is regularly carried out to verify homicide data used by government agencies and the scientific community. As a result of the data collection and validation process, in many countries several homicide datasets have become available from different or multiple sources. Therefore, data series have been selected to provide the most appropriate reference counts.
