Fact check: Which cities in the US had the highest murder rates per capita in 2024?

1. Summary of the results

Based on the analyses provided, St. Louis, Missouri consistently ranks as the city with the highest murder rate per capita in the United States for 2024. However, there are notable discrepancies in the reported rates across sources:

• One source reports St. Louis at 54.4 per 100,000 residents ^[1]
• Another source reports St. Louis at 69.4 per 100,000 people ^[2]

The top cities with highest murder rates per capita in 2024 include:

• St. Louis, MO - ranging from 54.4 to 69.4 per 100,000 ^{[1] [2]}
• Baltimore, MD - 51.1 per 100,000 ^[2]
• New Orleans, LA - ranging from 34.7 to 40.6 per 100,000 ^{[1] [2]}
• Detroit, MI - ranging from 32.1 to 39.7 per 100,000 ^{[1] [2]}
• Cleveland, OH - 33.7 per 100,000 ^[2]

Additional cities in the top rankings include Las Vegas, Kansas City, Memphis, Newark, and Chicago ^[2]. Washington, D.C. had a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 people in 2024 ^[3].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question lacks several important contextual elements that emerge from the analyses:

• Positive crime trends: More than half of the cities analyzed experienced decreases in homicide rates from 2023 to 2024 ^[1]. Cities like Baltimore, Detroit, and St. Louis saw significant drops in homicide rates, returning to levels not seen in about a decade ^[4].
• Data methodology concerns: The FBI released data on over 14 million criminal offenses for 2024, but this comprehensive federal data does not provide specific city-by-city murder rate rankings ^[5]. This suggests that the rankings may come from different data collection methods or sources.
• International perspective: Washington D.C.'s rate of 27.3 per 100,000, while high domestically, ranks below at least 49 other cities worldwide ^[3], providing important global context often missing from domestic crime discussions.
• Temporal variations: Some sources reference 2025 rankings that show continued changes in city rankings, indicating these statistics are dynamic rather than static ^[6].

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question itself does not contain explicit misinformation, but it lacks important nuance:

• Statistical inconsistencies: The significant variation in reported rates for the same cities (St. Louis ranging from 54.4 to 69.4 per 100,000) suggests different data sources or methodologies are being used, which could lead to misleading comparisons ^{[1] [2]}.
• Missing improvement narrative: By focusing solely on "highest rates," the question omits the significant crime reduction trends occurring in many of these same cities ^{[4] [1]}. This omission could perpetuate outdated perceptions about urban crime trends.
• Lack of data source specification: The question doesn't specify whether it seeks FBI data, local police data, or other crime reporting systems, which matters significantly given the discrepancies observed across sources ^[5].

The analyses reveal that while certain cities do have concerning murder rates, the broader context shows meaningful progress in crime reduction across many urban areas, a narrative that benefits public understanding but may not align with political messaging that emphasizes urban crime problems.