Top 100 Countries by Homicide Rate (per 100k), 2025
Countries and Territories with the Highest Homicide Rates per 100,000 People
Homicide rate per 100,000 people measures intentional homicide victims relative to population size. It is a narrow lethal-violence indicator, not a general crime score, and it allows small territories, mid-sized countries and large economies to be compared on the same per-capita scale.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The 2025 snapshot uses the latest non-null observation available for each country or territory in the World Bank WDI series sourced from UNODC. Reporting years differ: many values are from 2022 or 2023, while some countries and territories have older latest observations. The year column is therefore part of the ranking, not a secondary detail.
National homicide rates depend on legal classification, death registration, police and court recording, forensic capacity and population denominators. High-rate jurisdictions are commonly analysed alongside organized-crime exposure, firearm circulation, interpersonal violence, institutional capacity and small-population volatility; low rates can reflect lower lethal violence, stronger recording systems or incomplete reporting.
Turks and Caicos Islands ranks first in the latest-available snapshot.
The first ten entries all exceed 39 intentional homicides per 100,000 people.
StatRanker calculation across 196 economies with latest non-null WDI homicide-rate observations.
Economies with at least one source observation; article table displays the 100 highest rates.
Overview
The upper part of the homicide-rate distribution is highly concentrated. Caribbean and Latin American countries and territories dominate the highest tier, while Southern Africa appears near the top through South Africa and Lesotho. This pattern should be read as a signal for deeper investigation rather than as a single-cause explanation.
A rate-based table is more useful than absolute homicide counts when the question is relative intensity. A large country can record more homicide victims in total but rank lower by rate if its population is much larger. A small island or territory can rank very high because a limited number of victims produces a large value per 100,000 residents.
The ranking works best for national-level comparison. It does not identify city-level hotspots, neighborhood exposure, victim profiles, weapon types, domestic-violence patterns or traveler risk. Those questions require local statistical releases and more granular security data.
Key Insight
The Top 10 starts at 39.6 per 100,000, while the calculated global median is about 2.6. The upper tail is therefore far above the global middle.
Regional Concentration
The Caribbean and Latin America account for most of the highest positions. These rates are often discussed alongside organized-crime exposure, drug-transit routes, firearm circulation and uneven criminal-justice capacity.
Outlier Effect
Small territories can shift sharply because the population denominator is small. A change of only a few homicide victims can move the displayed rate by several points.
Data Limitation
The snapshot uses latest available values rather than one uniform reporting year. This improves coverage but limits strict single-year comparability.
Top 10 Countries and Territories by Homicide Rate
The Top 10 is concentrated in the Caribbean, Latin America and Southern Africa. Values below are synchronized with the main ranking table and use the same latest-available source logic.
| Rank | Country / territory | Homicide rate per 100k | Latest data year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 76.3 | 2022 |
| 2 | St. Kitts and Nevis | 61.2 | 2020 |
| 3 | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | 54.0 | 2022 |
| 4 | Virgin Islands (U.S.) | 52.0 | 2020 |
| 5 | Jamaica | 49.3 | 2022 |
| 6 | Ecuador | 45.7 | 2023 |
| 7 | South Africa | 43.5 | 2023 |
| 8 | Haiti | 41.5 | 2022 |
| 9 | Trinidad and Tobago | 39.7 | 2022 |
| 10 | St. Lucia | 39.6 | 2022 |
Top 10 values use the same latest-available World Bank WDI / UNODC indicator logic as the full table.
Chart: Top 20 Homicide Rates
The Top 20 ranges from 76.3 to 23.4 intentional homicides per 100,000 people. The steep decline between the first and twentieth positions shows how concentrated the upper tail is.
Methodology
The ranking uses intentional homicides per 100,000 population. The indicator compares lethal interpersonal violence after adjusting for population size. It is narrower than violent crime and does not measure robbery, assault, kidnapping, domestic violence, non-fatal violence or every form of conflict-related death.
Homicide rate = intentional homicide victims / population × 100,000The source logic follows UNODC intentional homicide data as distributed through the World Bank WDI indicator VC.IHR.PSRC.P5. For each country or territory, the ranking uses the latest non-null observation available in the series, then sorts values from highest to lowest. Values are rounded to one decimal place for display. The calculated global median of 2.6 is based on the broader set of 196 economies with at least one latest non-null observation.
Indicator
Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 people. The measure counts unlawful intentional killings and divides the count by resident population.
Snapshot logic
The 2025 label identifies the ranking edition, not a single reporting year. The table keeps the latest source year visible for every row.
Coverage
The broader dataset includes 196 economies with at least one observation. This page displays the 100 highest listed rates in the latest-available snapshot.
Limitations
Criminal-justice data, mortality data, legal definitions and forensic capacity differ by country. Mixed-year ranking improves coverage but reduces strict year-to-year comparability.
The ranking does not impute missing values. It also does not replace national statistical releases, which may include richer breakdowns by city, victim profile, offender profile, weapon type, motive and legal classification. Countries and territories with older latest years should be interpreted with extra caution because the displayed rate may not represent current local conditions.
Full Ranking: Top 100 Countries and Territories by Homicide Rate
The table ranks countries and territories by latest available intentional homicide rate per 100,000 people. The controls search, filter, sort and limit rows that already exist in the HTML. With JavaScript disabled, the full table remains visible.
| Rank | Country / territory | Homicide rate per 100k | Latest data year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 76.3 | 2022 |
| 2 | St. Kitts and Nevis | 61.2 | 2020 |
| 3 | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | 54.0 | 2022 |
| 4 | Virgin Islands (U.S.) | 52.0 | 2020 |
| 5 | Jamaica | 49.3 | 2022 |
| 6 | Ecuador | 45.7 | 2023 |
| 7 | South Africa | 43.5 | 2023 |
| 8 | Haiti | 41.5 | 2022 |
| 9 | Trinidad and Tobago | 39.7 | 2022 |
| 10 | St. Lucia | 39.6 | 2022 |
| 11 | Lesotho | 38.1 | 2022 |
| 12 | Bahamas, The | 37.3 | 2022 |
| 13 | Honduras | 35.7 | 2023 |
| 14 | Belize | 32.7 | 2021 |
| 15 | Dominica | 32.7 | 2022 |
| 16 | St. Martin (French part) | 31.9 | 2021 |
| 17 | American Samoa | 31.4 | 2015 |
| 18 | Colombia | 26.1 | 2023 |
| 19 | Mexico | 25.1 | 2023 |
| 20 | Guatemala | 23.4 | 2023 |
| 21 | Brazil | 21.4 | 2023 |
| 22 | Eswatini | 20.6 | 2022 |
| 23 | Costa Rica | 20.1 | 2023 |
| 24 | Panama | 19.5 | 2023 |
| 25 | Guyana | 18.9 | 2020 |
| 26 | El Salvador | 18.2 | 2023 |
| 27 | Venezuela, RB | 17.7 | 2016 |
| 28 | Nicaragua | 16.7 | 2020 |
| 29 | Puerto Rico | 16.3 | 2020 |
| 30 | French Polynesia | 16.0 | 2020 |
| 31 | Cuba | 15.9 | 2022 |
| 32 | Zimbabwe | 15.6 | 2012 |
| 33 | Barbados | 15.5 | 2022 |
| 34 | Suriname | 15.4 | 2022 |
| 35 | Bolivia | 15.1 | 2020 |
| 36 | Botswana | 14.8 | 2022 |
| 37 | Cayman Islands | 14.7 | 2022 |
| 38 | Cape Verde | 14.4 | 2022 |
| 39 | Uruguay | 14.0 | 2023 |
| 40 | Namibia | 13.8 | 2022 |
| 41 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 13.7 | 2021 |
| 42 | Paraguay | 13.4 | 2023 |
| 43 | Peru | 13.2 | 2023 |
| 44 | Papua New Guinea | 13.1 | 2022 |
| 45 | Angola | 12.6 | 2010 |
| 46 | Nigeria | 12.6 | 2020 |
| 47 | Grenada | 12.5 | 2022 |
| 48 | Sierra Leone | 12.4 | 2020 |
| 49 | Micronesia, Fed. Sts. | 12.3 | 2021 |
| 50 | Congo, Rep. | 12.1 | 2012 |
| 51 | Cameroon | 11.9 | 2020 |
| 52 | Uganda | 11.6 | 2013 |
| 53 | Chad | 11.5 | 2020 |
| 54 | Liberia | 11.4 | 2020 |
| 55 | Somalia | 11.4 | 2010 |
| 56 | Sudan | 11.2 | 2010 |
| 57 | Mozambique | 11.1 | 2010 |
| 58 | Central African Republic | 11.0 | 2020 |
| 59 | Equatorial Guinea | 11.0 | 2011 |
| 60 | Gabon | 10.6 | 2012 |
| 61 | Congo, Dem. Rep. | 10.6 | 2012 |
| 62 | Mali | 10.5 | 2020 |
| 63 | Afghanistan | 10.3 | 2020 |
| 64 | Burkina Faso | 10.0 | 2020 |
| 65 | Côte d’Ivoire | 10.0 | 2020 |
| 66 | Gambia, The | 9.9 | 2020 |
| 67 | Bermuda | 9.8 | 2022 |
| 68 | Pakistan | 9.8 | 2020 |
| 69 | Tonga | 9.8 | 2021 |
| 70 | Madagascar | 9.7 | 2020 |
| 71 | Algeria | 9.6 | 2021 |
| 72 | Philippines | 9.6 | 2020 |
| 73 | Guinea | 9.5 | 2020 |
| 74 | Benin | 9.3 | 2020 |
| 75 | Niger | 9.3 | 2020 |
| 76 | Zambia | 9.0 | 2010 |
| 77 | Tanzania | 8.9 | 2011 |
| 78 | Fiji | 8.8 | 2021 |
| 79 | Guinea-Bissau | 8.7 | 2020 |
| 80 | Iran, Islamic Rep. | 8.5 | 2021 |
| 81 | United States | 6.3 | 2023 |
| 82 | Bahrain | 6.3 | 2020 |
| 83 | Djibouti | 6.2 | 2020 |
| 84 | Russia | 6.2 | 2023 |
| 85 | Seychelles | 6.2 | 2022 |
| 86 | South Sudan | 6.0 | 2010 |
| 87 | Kenya | 5.9 | 2011 |
| 88 | Vanuatu | 5.8 | 2021 |
| 89 | Mongolia | 5.6 | 2022 |
| 90 | Ethiopia | 5.6 | 2010 |
| 91 | Mauritania | 5.4 | 2020 |
| 92 | Bhutan | 5.3 | 2022 |
| 93 | Vietnam | 5.0 | 2011 |
| 94 | Lebanon | 4.9 | 2020 |
| 95 | Azerbaijan | 4.9 | 2019 |
| 96 | Ghana | 4.7 | 2020 |
| 97 | Aruba | 2.7 | 2015 |
| 98 | Kiribati | 2.7 | 2021 |
| 99 | Myanmar | 2.6 | 2023 |
| 100 | Canada | 2.6 | 2023 |
Source logic: latest available intentional homicide rates per 100,000 people from UNODC and World Bank indicator VC.IHR.PSRC.P5. Mixed latest-year data improves coverage but affects strict year-to-year comparability.
Insights
Homicide-rate rankings show where lethal violence is concentrated relative to population size, but the distribution is not explained by one variable. The highest tier combines small-territory volatility, organized-crime exposure, firearm circulation, institutional constraints and local histories of violence. The table is useful for cross-country screening; it should not be used as a city-level safety map.
Key Insight
The first-ranked value, 76.3 per 100,000, is about 29 times the calculated global median of roughly 2.6. That gap shows how sharply lethal violence is concentrated in the upper tail.
Notable Pattern
The Caribbean and Latin America dominate the upper ranks. These high values are commonly assessed together with drug-transit exposure, firearm circulation, gang fragmentation and uneven criminal-justice capacity.
Regional Concentration
Southern Africa remains visible near the top through South Africa and Lesotho. This indicates that very high homicide rates are not limited to small island territories; they can also persist in larger national systems.
Outlier
Small territories can produce extreme per-capita values when absolute case counts change. The rate remains valid for proportional comparison, but year-to-year movement should be interpreted with caution.
What It Means
For public-safety analysis, homicide rate is one of the clearest cross-country violence indicators because homicide is more likely to enter official systems than many other crimes. Even so, recording quality still depends on forensic capacity, policing, court classification and death-registration systems.
For policymakers, a high homicide rate signals pressure on policing, courts, emergency medicine, trauma care, youth policy, prevention programmes and trust in public institutions. Lethal violence is not only a criminal-justice issue; at high levels it becomes a public-health, governance and development challenge.
For journalists and researchers, the rate helps compare places without letting population size dominate the story. A large country can record more homicide victims in total while ranking lower by rate, while a small territory can rank high because the same number of victims represents a larger share of residents.
For analysts, investors, students and migration researchers, the indicator is a macro-level signal. It should be combined with city-level data, conflict indicators, institutional metrics, inequality data, travel advisories and sector-specific risk assessments before operational decisions are made.
FAQ
Which country or territory has the highest homicide rate in the 2025 snapshot?
Turks and Caicos Islands ranks first in this latest-available snapshot, with a displayed rate of 76.3 intentional homicides per 100,000 people. Because it is a small-population territory, the per-capita rate can move sharply when the absolute number of homicide victims changes.
What does homicide rate per 100,000 mean?
It means the number of intentional homicide victims divided by population, then multiplied by 100,000. A rate of 20 per 100,000 means about 20 intentional homicide victims for every 100,000 residents in the reporting population.
Is the 2025 ranking based on 2025 data for every country?
No. The 2025 label refers to the ranking snapshot. The table uses the latest available value for each country or territory, and the latest-data-year column shows which reporting year is used for every row.
Why can small countries and territories rank very high?
The rate uses population as the denominator. In a small territory, a limited increase in homicide victims can produce a large increase per 100,000 people. This makes the rate useful for proportional comparison but more volatile in small populations.
Does homicide rate measure overall crime?
No. Homicide rate measures lethal intentional violence only. It does not measure theft, robbery, assault, fraud, kidnapping, domestic violence, public disorder or non-fatal violence. Countries with similar homicide rates can still have very different broader crime profiles.
Why do UNODC, World Bank, WHO and national sources sometimes differ?
Differences can come from source type, definition, update schedule, legal classification and population denominators. UNODC and World Bank series often rely on criminal-justice data, while health-system sources may classify deaths through mortality records.
Is a lower homicide rate always more reliable?
Not necessarily. A low value may reflect genuinely low lethal violence, but it may also reflect incomplete registration, weak forensic systems or inconsistent classification. Reliability should be judged together with data quality and institutional capacity.
How should homicide rate be compared with absolute homicide counts?
The rate is best for comparing intensity relative to population size, while the absolute count is better for understanding total system burden. Analysts should use both measures when assessing public-safety pressure, policy capacity and long-term trends.
Sources
Sources below cover the homicide indicator, the World Bank access point, population context and methodological background. The ranking is built from international homicide-rate datasets and should be checked against national releases for local operational use.
UNODC Data Portal — Intentional Homicide
Primary source environment for intentional homicide victims and homicide rates. UNODC provides the international framework for comparing intentional homicide across countries and territories.
World Bank — Intentional homicides per 100,000 people, VC.IHR.PSRC.P5
Country-level access point for the homicide-rate indicator sourced from UNODC. Used as the retrieval and verification layer for latest available observations.
World Bank API — Indicators endpoint
Reproducibility source for retrieving indicator values programmatically and checking country-year observations behind the ranking table.
https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/all/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?format=json
United Nations World Population Prospects
Population-denominator context. Homicide rates depend on both victim counts and resident population size, so population estimates affect per-capita values.
UNODC Global Study on Homicide 2023
Methodological and analytical context on intentional homicide patterns, regional dynamics, definitions, criminal-justice data and global trends in lethal violence.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html
