The FBI’s latest national crime report shows murders and nonnegligent manslaughter fell 18.1% in 2025 as overall violent crime declined 9.3%, pushing the homicide rate to 4.1 per 100,000 people — matching the historic lows recorded in 1955 and 1956.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Violent crime fell sharply across the United States in 2025, with the national homicide rate dropping to a level not seen in roughly seven decades and preliminary figures indicating the decline has continued into 2026, according to FBI statistics released Friday.
The FBI reported a homicide rate of 4.1 per 100,000 people in 2025, tying the rates recorded in 1955 and 1956 and marking the lowest level since the federal government began tracking comparable figures in 1900.
Murders and nonnegligent manslaughters declined 18.1% between 2024 and 2025, while violent crime overall fell 9.3%.
Property crime also dropped substantially, declining 12.4% from the previous year.
The widespread decreases continue a national retreat from the surge in violence recorded during the coronavirus pandemic, although criminologists caution that no single explanation accounts for the improvement.
“The homicide drop is historic and crystal clear. But right now, what’s driving it is about as clear as a glass of milk,” said Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the Washington-based Council on Criminal Justice.
“Rates are falling in cities with very different public safety strategies, economic conditions, and political leadership,” Gelb said. “The consistency across the map should make us cautious about handing credit to any one leader, party, policy, or program before the evidence catches up.”
President Donald Trump highlighted the new FBI numbers Friday during an appearance at a police academy on Long Island, New York.
Trump attributed the improvement in part to his administration’s approach to law enforcement, contrasting his policies with those of his predecessor and criticizing sanctuary jurisdictions.
“We ended the war on police, and we declared a very strong war on crime,” Trump said.
The president has emphasized his support for law enforcement and pointed to measures including National Guard deployments in Washington and elsewhere as evidence of his administration’s tougher approach to public safety.
Researchers tracking crime trends had anticipated an unusually large decline in homicides before the FBI released the annual figures.
Some criminologists examining data from several dozen cities had predicted the national homicide rate could fall as low as 4 per 100,000 residents, which would have established a new low for the entire period of modern federal recordkeeping.
The final nationwide rate came just above that projection at 4.1.
That figure nevertheless matched the historic lows recorded in 1955 and 1956.
Motor vehicle theft was another category showing a particularly large improvement.
Vehicle thefts declined by nearly 23% in 2025, falling to their lowest level in more than two decades.
The category had risen sharply during 2022 and 2023 after a social-media trend spread information about how to exploit a manufacturing vulnerability affecting certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles.
The newest figures indicate much of that increase has now reversed.
The FBI also took the unusual step of noting that crime continued to decline during the first half of 2026.
The bureau typically waits until complete annual data have been collected before characterizing nationwide crime trends.
The preliminary 2026 information comes only months before the midterm elections, at a time when Republican candidates and officials have increasingly pointed to falling crime rates as a political achievement.
Independent organizations tracking crime are seeing a similar pattern.
The Council on Criminal Justice has said 2026 could ultimately produce an even larger homicide decline than 2025.
Across the cities it monitors, homicides were down approximately 18% during the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.
The latest improvements follow several years of dramatic movement in national crime statistics.
Homicides surged nearly 30% in 2020 compared with 2019, the largest one-year increase since the FBI began maintaining national records.
Violent crime subsequently began declining, returning to approximately pre-pandemic levels around 2022 before continuing downward.
Determining why homicide rates have fallen so broadly remains difficult.
Researchers point out that cities experiencing similar reductions have adopted different policing strategies, criminal justice policies and public safety programs while operating under different economic and political conditions.
That variation makes it difficult to isolate the effect of any individual policy.
The FBI figures themselves also come with limitations.
The bureau compiles standardized statistics through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program using information voluntarily submitted by law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Participation is extensive but not universal.
The 2025 report incorporated data from more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies, representing more than 87% of agencies participating in the FBI program.
Those jurisdictions serve nearly 329 million Americans.
Despite those limitations, the breadth of the decline across multiple crime categories provides strong evidence of a substantial nationwide improvement during 2025.
Along with the 18.1% decline in murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, the 9.3% decrease in overall violent crime and 12.4% reduction in property crime indicate that the shift extended well beyond homicides alone.
Early 2026 figures suggest that trend has not yet reversed.
If the first-half declines persist through the remainder of the year, the United States could record another significant reduction in homicides after reaching a 4.1-per-100,000 rate in 2025 — already tied with 1955 and 1956 for the lowest level recorded since national tracking began in 1900.
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