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Which neighborhoods in Baltimore have the highest murder rates in 2025?
Executive summary
Official 2025 citywide reporting and independent databases show murders in Baltimore fell sharply in 2025 compared with recent peaks — BPD reported a 22–24% decline in homicides (68 in first half/year-to-date vs. 88) and mid‑year homicide rates were well below 2022 peaks (first half 2025 rate 11.8 per 100,000 vs. 32.1 in first half 2022) [1] [2]. However, available sources do not publish a definitive, ranked list of “neighborhoods with the highest murder rates in 2025”; neighborhood- and block-level tools exist, but the datasets and reporting practices vary [3] [4].
1. Citywide picture: murders fell in 2025 but hotspots still matter
Baltimore Police and multiple analyses report substantial declines in homicides and shootings in 2025 — BPD’s mid‑year bulletin cites a 22% homicide drop and 19% fewer non‑fatal shootings (68 homicides in 2025 v. 88 in 2024 in the same reporting window) and an improved clearance rate [1]. The Council on Criminal Justice notes the first half of 2025 homicide rate (11.8 per 100,000) was 63% below the 2022 first‑half peak (32.1 per 100,000), underscoring a notable citywide decline even as work continues [2].
2. Why you won’t find a clean 2025 “top neighborhoods” table in these sources
None of the provided materials delivers a simple ranked list of neighborhoods by 2025 murder rate. The Baltimore Police Department points users to an interactive Public Crime Map and Open Baltimore data but warns that data are preliminary, subject to change, and that BPD transitioned to NIBRS reporting effective Jan. 1, 2025 — a methodological shift that complicates direct comparisons and simple rankings [3]. The Baltimore Sun and its homicide database offer searchable incident-level records, enabling neighborhood queries, but they do not publish a single, authoritative ranked table in the material provided here [5] [4].
3. Where reporting points attention: central and western concentrations, plus district-level declines
Historical investigations (and aggregated analyses) have long shown Baltimore’s violence concentrates in a subset of neighborhoods — a 2016 Baltimore Sun investigation found about 80% of gun homicides occurred in roughly 25% of neighborhoods; contemporary 2025 commentary and mapping tools continue to show central and some western areas with higher incident counts [6] [7]. At the same time, district-level reporting cited in summaries shows improvements across districts in 2025, with the Northeast District singled out in one analysis for a large percentage reduction — but that same source frames this as district-level change, not a neighborhood ranking [8] [2].
4. How to get the neighborhood-level answers yourself (and caveats to watch)
If you need neighborhood-specific 2025 murder counts or rates, use the Baltimore Sun homicide database to query by block or district and the BPD Public Crime Map / Open Baltimore export — but treat counts as preliminary and be cautious about changes after BPD’s records‑system upgrades and transition to NIBRS in 2025 [5] [3] [4]. Also note that some third‑party aggregators (CrimeGrade, NeighborhoodScout, etc.) offer neighborhood maps and rankings for 2025, but methodologies differ, and total‑incident maps can be skewed by retail corridors, parks or transient populations [7] [9].
5. Competing narratives and possible agendas in 2025 reporting
City officials and advocates emphasize the 2025 declines — Mayor’s office and BPD statements highlight double‑digit reductions, improved clearance rates and programmatic interventions like GVRS and MONSE efforts [1] [10]. Independent outlets and data tools point to both historic concentration of violence in certain neighborhoods and continued neighborhood‑level variation; some media and private sites may frame maps to attract clicks or real‑estate readers, which can overstate danger in central commercial corridors versus residential per‑capita risk [6] [7] [9]. Readers should weigh official optimism about declines against the reality that violence remains geographically concentrated and that reporting and classification changes in 2025 affect comparability [3] [2].
6. Practical takeaway and next steps
Available sources confirm 2025 was a year of notable homicide reductions citywide but do not supply a ready-made ranked list of neighborhoods with the highest murder rates for 2025 [1] [2] [3]. To identify specific neighborhoods, query the Baltimore Sun homicide database and BPD’s Public Crime Map/Open Data exports, then normalize counts by neighborhood population and account for 2025 reporting method changes [5] [3] [4]. If you’d like, I can extract and summarize neighborhood-level incident counts from the Baltimore Sun database and BPD precinct maps (within the constraints of the current sources) and note any methodological caveats.