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Top ten city murder rates in the us
Executive summary
Available sources agree that U.S. city homicide rankings vary by dataset and year, but repeatedly name St. Louis, Jackson (MS), Baltimore, New Orleans, Memphis, Detroit and Cleveland among cities with the highest murder rates in recent years (examples: St. Louis top-ranked; Jackson and Baltimore very high) [1] [2] [3]. Analysts caution that national murder rates fell in 2024–mid‑2025 and that city rankings change with population definitions, county vs. city measures, and which years are used [4] [5] [6].
1. What "top ten" lists actually measure — and why that matters
Different outlets compile “top ten” lists using different denominators and years: some use city limits and murders per 100,000 residents; others use the county that contains the city; others restrict to cities above a population threshold. USAFacts’ county‑level approach finds New Orleans’ home county highest among large cities in 2023, while other rankings use city‑level FBI counts or local police trackers and produce different orderings [4] [1]. The choice of denominator matters because a small population can make a modest number of homicides appear as an enormous rate [4].
2. Common names that appear near the top across sources
Across the provided reporting and datasets, St. Louis consistently appears as the highest or among the highest murder‑rate cities, with other frequent entrants including Baltimore, New Orleans, Memphis, Detroit and Cleveland [1] [7] [2]. Local and analysts’ accounts also highlight Jackson, Mississippi, as having one of the highest rates for cities above 50,000 residents in 2024 [2].
3. Recent trend — homicide rates falling in 2024–mid‑2025
Several outlets report a notable decline in the national homicide rate and in many high‑rate cities between 2023 and 2025. Axios notes the nation’s homicide rate dropped to about 5 per 100,000 in 2024, and many of the highest‑rate cities saw declines; the Council on Criminal Justice’s mid‑year 2025 update shows declining street crime in many monitored cities through June 2025 [5] [6]. The Guardian and other reporting point to substantial percentage drops in some cities [2].
4. Why year-to-year comparisons can be misleading
Homicide totals are low relative to other crimes, so small absolute changes can shift rates dramatically, especially in smaller cities losing population. The Guardian notes St. Louis’s rate appeared high in 2024 but that falling violence and population decline will interact to change future rates [2]. Analysts warn not to treat a single year's ranking as a timeless label for a city [4] [6].
5. Political framing and competing narratives
Crime rankings are frequently used in political arguments: Axios documents that most high‑rate cities in a recent list were in Republican‑led states, complicating simple partisan narratives that point only to big Democratic cities [5]. Conversely, national political figures sometimes single out cities like Chicago; Newsweek and others counter that Chicago’s rate was lower than many other cities in federal data [8]. Both framings select facts that suit policy arguments; readers should note the agenda behind any citation.
6. Single‑source lists vs. aggregated research — where to be cautious
Commercial lists and single‑author webpages sometimes report extreme rates (e.g., very high per‑100k numbers) that differ from federal or nonprofit analyses; Datapandas and various private compilations put St. Louis, Baltimore and New Orleans at the very top but may rely on differing methods [1] [7]. The Council on Criminal Justice emphasizes standardized, incident‑level city data through mid‑2025 as a more methodical approach [6].
7. How to read a "top ten" list responsibly
Ask: (a) which year[9] are used; (b) are rates per 100,000 residents or raw counts reported; (c) is the measure for the city proper or its county; and (d) what population cutoff (if any) was applied. USAFacts, the Council on Criminal Justice and Axios explicitly discuss methodology and limitations and are better starting points than undated lists [4] [6] [5].
8. Bottom line for readers seeking a current top‑ten
If you want a defensible, current “top ten” by murder rate, start with official FBI or well‑documented sources and verify whether they use city or county figures and which year [4] [6]. Available reporting consistently places St. Louis and several Midwestern and Southern cities near the top, but precise rankings shift depending on method and time window [1] [2] [3].
Limitations: available sources do not mention a single canonical, universally accepted “top ten” list for 2025; instead they show multiple reputable datasets with differing methodology and overlapping but non‑identical city lineups [4] [6] [5].