How do 2025 dc murder counts by month compare to other major us cities in the same period?
Executive summary
Washington, D.C.’s homicide counts in 2025 declined from 2024 and through mid‑year were falling slightly faster than peer cities on average: the Council on Criminal Justice reports DC’s homicide rate fell 19% in January–June 2025 versus the same period in 2024 while the average change across 30 large cities was −17% [1]. Multiple sources tracking year‑to‑date tallies show DC had roughly mid‑double‑digit homicide counts through July–August 2025 (96–99), down from the comparable months in 2024 [2] [3] [4].
1. What the headline numbers say about DC through mid‑2025
Official and analyst tallies converge that homicides in DC trended downward in the first half of 2025: the Council on Criminal Justice’s mid‑year review shows a 19% drop in DC homicide rate for January–June 2025 compared with January–June 2024 [1], and crime analyst Jeff Asher reported 96 murders through July 2025 — an 11% decline relative to the same timeframe in 2024 [2]. The U.S. Attorney’s office and MPD had already characterized violent crime in 2024 as markedly lower year‑over‑year, setting a context of falling violence heading into 2025 [5].
2. How DC compares to other large U.S. cities in percent change
By the CCJ metric, DC’s percentage decline in the first half of 2025 slightly outpaced the average of large-city peers: DC −19% versus an average −17% across the 30‑city sample [1]. Nationally oriented analyses and data commentators likewise report unusually large drops in 2025 overall — analysts estimated a roughly 16–17% national one‑year homicide decline in 2025, which would make the year’s decreases historically large [6]. Those aggregate comparisons indicate DC’s trajectory is in line with, and modestly better than, the broad major‑city pattern in early 2025 [1] [6].
3. Monthly detail and variability: what the sources can and cannot show
Available public reporting supplies year‑to‑date totals and half‑year comparisons rather than a consistent, city‑by‑city month‑by‑month table for all major U.S. cities; the CCJ dashboard provides monthly counts for DC and others but the published summaries emphasize half‑year changes [1]. Local open data portals and MPD daily crime dashboards exist for DC that could produce precise monthly counts [7] [8], but the aggregated news pieces and analyst notes provided here report totals through July/August rather than a full per‑month comparison across cities [2] [3]. Therefore, while the pattern of decline is clear for DC and the broad sample, this reporting does not permit a rigorous month‑by‑month numerical ranking of DC against each major city for every month of 2025.
4. Cities bucking the trend and caveats on interpretation
Several large cities bucked the national downward trend: survey reporting from the Major Cities Chiefs Association notes increases in some places (for example, Atlanta and Omaha reported increases in certain violent‑crime categories in 2025), underscoring that the national decline had important local exceptions [9]. Analysts warn that geography, municipal boundaries, and reporting practices affect comparisons — DC’s densely urban boundaries and smaller population base mean per‑capita rates and counts can move more sharply than larger jurisdictions that include suburban areas [4]. Political actors have also highlighted raw counts for narrative effect; fact‑checks emphasize that year‑to‑date comparisons (e.g., 99 homicides as of August 2025 versus 112 at the same point in 2024) show improvement and that international comparisons previously cited were misleading [3] [4].
5. Bottom line and reporting limits
The best available reporting frames DC in 2025 as improving on 2024 and slightly outperforming the average large‑city decline in the first half of the year (CCJ: DC −19% vs. sample −17%) while year‑to‑date tallies through July–August (roughly 96–99 homicides) were lower than the same months in 2024 [1] [2] [3]. However, the sources do not provide a complete, month‑by‑month numeric comparison between DC and every major U.S. city for all of 2025 within these snippets; producing that detailed table would require accessing CCJ’s offense dashboard and each city’s monthly reports or open datasets [1] [7].