How Many People Are Murdered Every Day
About 458,000 people are victims of homicide each year, roughly 1,250 a day. Where murder rates are highest, who the victims are, and the long-term trend.
Picture the overnight shift at a police control room in a large city. Most of the calls are what you would expect: noise complaints, minor crashes, people locked out, arguments that end before officers arrive. Then, a little after two in the morning, a call comes in that changes the room. A man has been found injured outside a bar after a fight that started over almost nothing. By the time the ambulance reaches hospital, it is a homicide investigation.
There is nothing unusual about that call, and that is the uncomfortable truth behind global murder statistics. Most killings are not the elaborate crimes of television dramas. They are young men, often strangers or acquaintances, often with alcohol or a weapon nearby, in an argument that escalates within minutes. Or they happen at home, behind closed doors, between people who know each other well.
The headline number
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that around 458,000 people were victims of intentional homicide in 2021, the most recent year covered in its global study. That works out to roughly 1,250 homicides every day, or close to one a minute.
That is a small share of the roughly 62 million deaths a year you can watch on our live death counter, around 0.7%. But it is a share that is almost entirely made up of people who would otherwise have lived for decades.
| Time period | Homicides (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Per minute | 0.9 |
| Per hour | 52 |
| Per day | 1,250 |
| Per week | 8,800 |
| Per month | 38,000 |
| Per year | 458,000 |
UNODC's figure counts intentional homicides: unlawful killings meant to cause death or serious injury. It does not include deaths in armed conflict, which are counted separately and which we cover in how many people die in wars every year. In some recent years, homicide has actually killed more people worldwide than war has.
Where homicide happens
Homicide is one of the most unevenly distributed causes of death on earth. The global average rate is around 5.8 per 100,000 people, but that number hides enormous differences between regions.
| Region | Approx. homicides per year | Rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | ~176,000 | ~13 |
| Americas | ~154,000 | ~15 |
| Asia | ~109,000 | ~2.3 |
| Europe | ~17,000 | ~2.2 |
| Oceania | ~1,000 | ~3 |
Figures are rounded from UNODC estimates for 2021 and should be read as approximate.
The Americas have only about 13% of the world's population but account for roughly a third of its homicides. Africa has the largest number of victims, though data from many African countries is patchy, so its true toll is less certain. Asia, home to well over half of humanity, has a homicide rate lower than the global average, and Europe's is lower still.
At country level, the differences are even sharper. Countries such as Jamaica, South Africa, Honduras and Ecuador have recorded rates above 30 or even 40 per 100,000 in recent years. At the other end, Japan and Singapore record well under 1 per 100,000. A person in the highest-rate countries is more than a hundred times as likely to be murdered as someone in the lowest.
The US and the UK
| United States | England and Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| Homicides per year | ~23,000 (CDC, 2023) | ~570 (ONS, year to March 2024) |
| Per day | ~63 | ~1.6 |
| Rate per 100,000 | ~6.8 | ~1 |
| Most common method | Firearms (roughly 4 in 5) | Knives and sharp instruments (around 4 in 10) |
The United States has a homicide rate several times higher than other wealthy countries, and the main reason is firearms, which we cover in detail in how many people die from guns every day. US homicides rose sharply in 2020 and 2021, then fell back significantly in 2023 and 2024.
In England and Wales, part of the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics records around 570 homicides a year, close to the lowest level since records in their current form began. Knives are the most common method, followed by hitting and kicking. For context, around 1,800 people die in the UK every day from all causes, as we explain in how many people die in the UK every day. Homicide accounts for a tiny fraction of that.
Who the victims are
Globally, homicide is overwhelmingly something that happens to men, and is carried out by men.
| Group | Share of homicide victims |
|---|---|
| Men and boys | ~81% |
| Women and girls | ~19% |
| Victims aged 15 to 44 | The large majority |
The peak age for both victims and perpetrators is the late teens through the 30s. In the Americas, homicide is the leading cause of death for young men, and it is one of the main reasons that young adults aged 15 to 29 face such high injury death rates. We look at that age group more closely in the leading causes of death for young people.
The picture for women is different. Women are far less likely to be killed, but when they are, the killer is usually someone close to them. A joint UNODC and UN Women report estimated that about 85,000 women and girls were intentionally killed in 2023, and that around 60% of them were killed by an intimate partner or another family member. That is roughly 140 women and girls every day killed by someone in their own home or family.
| Male victims | Female victims | |
|---|---|---|
| Most common setting | Public places, streets, bars | The home |
| Most common perpetrator | Strangers or acquaintances | Partners or family members |
| Main drivers | Gangs, organised crime, fights, robbery | Domestic abuse, control, separation |
What drives homicide
Criminologists generally agree on a cluster of factors that are linked with high homicide rates. No single one explains it on its own.
| Factor | Link to homicide |
|---|---|
| Organised crime and gangs | UNODC estimates organised crime is behind around a fifth of homicides globally, and around half in the Americas |
| Firearm availability | Turns assaults into deaths; firearms are used in a large share of killings in the Americas |
| Inequality | Countries with wider income gaps tend to have higher homicide rates |
| Weak rule of law | Low chance of conviction means less deterrence |
| Young male population | Most perpetrators and victims are young men |
| Alcohol | Involved in a large share of fights that end in death |
| Drug markets | Competition between groups drives waves of violence |
Some homicides are also driven by prejudice against the victim's identity, religion, ethnicity or sexuality. We cover the data on those killings separately on our hate crimes page.
How people are killed
The weapons used in homicides differ sharply from one region to another, which is one reason homicide rates differ so much.
| Region | Most common method (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Americas | Firearms, used in around two thirds of homicides |
| Africa | Mix of firearms and sharp objects; data is limited |
| Europe | Sharp objects and other means more common than firearms in many countries |
| Asia | Mix of methods; firearms less common in most countries |
| Globally | Firearms in roughly 4 in 10 homicides |
Where guns are widely available, a fight or robbery is far more likely to end in a death. Where they are not, many of the same assaults still cause injury but end with the victim in hospital rather than the morgue.
What actually reduces homicide
Homicide often feels like an unavoidable part of human nature, but the evidence shows it responds to policy. Cities and countries have cut their rates sharply in a matter of years.
| Approach | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Focused deterrence | Targeting the small number of people and groups behind most violence has cut homicides in several US and UK cities |
| Violence interruption | Outreach workers who mediate disputes before they turn into retaliation |
| Treating violence as a public health issue | Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit, set up in 2005, is credited with helping to roughly halve homicides in Glasgow |
| Domestic abuse services and risk assessment | Identifying women at high risk before an attack |
| Reducing access to weapons | Knife and firearm controls reduce the share of assaults that are fatal |
| Faster trauma care | Better emergency medicine turns some would-be homicides into survivable injuries |
Some of the fall in homicide in rich countries over the past 30 years is actually a medical achievement. Studies have suggested that improvements in trauma care mean many assaults that would have been fatal in the 1960s or 1970s are now survived.
Is murder rising or falling?
Over the long run, the answer is clearly falling. Historians estimate that homicide rates in medieval Europe were many times higher than today. Over the past few decades, the global homicide rate has also declined, from roughly 7 per 100,000 in the early 1990s to under 6 now, according to UNODC.
| Year | Global homicide rate (per 100,000, approx.) |
|---|---|
| 1993 | ~7.4 |
| 2000 | ~7.0 |
| 2010 | ~6.3 |
| 2017 | ~6.1 |
| 2021 | ~5.8 |
But because the world population has grown, the total number of victims has stayed in roughly the same range for years. And the regional picture is mixed. Parts of Latin America and the Caribbean have seen surges linked to organised crime, while much of Asia and Europe have continued to get safer.
Homicide compared with other causes of death
It can help to put homicide alongside other causes, especially the ones people worry about less.
| Cause | Approx. deaths per year |
|---|---|
| Road injuries | 1,190,000 |
| Suicide | 700,000 |
| Falls | 684,000 |
| Homicide | 458,000 |
| Drowning | 300,000 |
Worldwide, suicide kills more people than homicide. That is true in most high-income countries too, including the US and the UK. If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available: Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK, or call or text 988 in the US. Our suicide data page covers the figures in more depth.
For most people reading this in a wealthy country, the risk of being murdered is very small compared with the risk from heart disease, cancer or even a fall at home. You can see how those everyday risks compare over a lifetime in what are the odds of dying from everyday causes, or estimate your own most likely causes with the risk calculator.
While you were reading this
You have spent about 12 minutes with this article. In that time, around 10 people have been killed by another person somewhere in the world. Most of them were young men. Two of them were most likely women, and one of those was probably killed by a partner or relative.
You can see every death, from every cause, adding up in real time on our live death counter and on the deaths today page.
Homicide is one of the most preventable causes of death there is. The countries with the lowest rates did not get there by accident: they got there through strong institutions, fewer weapons, safer streets and decades of work. The gap between those countries and the most violent places on earth is the real measure of how many of these deaths do not have to happen.
Data sources: UNODC Global Study on Homicide 2023, UNODC and UN Women Femicides in 2023 report, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Vital Statistics, Office for National Statistics (ONS) Homicide in England and Wales, WHO Global Health Estimates. Figures are rounded; regional and country figures vary by year and data quality, and should be read as indicative. This article is for informational purposes only.
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