Which Chicago neighborhoods had the highest homicide rates in 2025 and how did their rates change from 2024?

1. Which neighborhoods topped the 2025 lists: Greater Grand Crossing and West Garfield Park

A neighborhood‑level analysis published by Legal Reader identified Greater Grand Crossing as having the highest homicide rate over the most recent year (October 2024–October 2025) at roughly 93 homicides per 100,000 residents, while West Garfield Park shows up in multiple reports as among the very highest in three‑year averages — Legal Reader and other replicating summaries list West Garfield Park with extremely elevated rates (three‑year average ~134 per 100,000 in the Legal Reader summary) ^{[1] [6]}.

2. Other persistent hot spots: Austin, Englewood and South Shore

Multiple compilations and local reporting place Austin, Englewood and South Shore consistently among community areas with elevated homicide concentrations in 2024–2025, with aggregated trackers and summary sites noting these South and West Side neighborhoods as having some of the city’s highest concentrations of gun homicides and shootings ^{[4] [3] [7]}.

3. How rates changed from 2024 to 2025 — substantial citywide declines, uneven neighborhood patterns

Independent analyses and local reporting agree that 2025 saw meaningful declines in lethal violence compared with 2024: the Council on Criminal Justice reported a roughly 33 percent decline in Chicago’s homicide rate for January–June 2025 versus the same period in 2024, a drop larger than the average among a 30‑city sample ^[5], Block Club and other local outlets reported that total murders and shootings fell sharply in 2025 relative to 2024 (Block Club cites the fewest murders in 60 years and a roughly 35 percent decline in shootings) ^[2], and Sirix/Miscellaneous trackers summarized near‑30 percent fewer murders year‑to‑date in 2025 than in 2024 while noting some neighborhoods — West Garfield Park in particular — remained hotspots ^{[3] [2]}. Those declines at the city level, however, do not mean uniform reductions in every high‑rate neighborhood; local snapshots and multi‑year averages still show extreme geographic disparities ^{[8] [1]}.

4. Scale and disparity: why neighborhood rankings can look different depending on the measure

The picture shifts depending on whether analysts use a single‑year rate, a rolling 12‑month window, or multi‑year averages, and depending on whether local databases exclude certain classifications (e.g., justifiable homicide, involuntary manslaughter) — Legal Reader explicitly notes its neighborhood figures exclude some categories while FBI/CDC datasets use broader definitions, which helps explain why community‑area rankings differ across reports ^[1]. The University of Chicago Crime Lab also emphasizes that residents in the highest‑rate neighborhoods experience dramatically more homicides than those in the safest areas — the report cites an approximate 68x geographic disparity between highest‑ and lowest‑homicide neighborhoods — underscoring that even with citywide declines, concentrated risk persists ^[8].

5. Caveats, data limits and competing narratives

Reporting is consistent that homicides fell in 2025 relative to 2024, but precise neighborhood‑level year‑to‑year percentage changes are rarely published in a uniform fashion across the available sources; some outlets aggregate different time windows or rely on independent local databases with differing inclusion rules ^{[1] [5]}. Local news and advocacy organizations highlight both the progress (fewer homicides overall) and ongoing dangers (domestic homicides and persistently violent pockets), and independent trackers reproduce similar neighborhood names at the top of danger lists, but the exact rank order and percent change for every community area depend on methodology ^{[2] [3] [7]}.