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Which U.S. cities had the largest year-over-year changes in violent crime rates in 2024–2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not provide a single, definitive list of which U.S. cities had the largest year‑over‑year increases or decreases in violent crime for the full 2024–2025 period; most public analyses focus on 2024 year‑over‑year changes or on mid‑year 2025 comparisons for sets of cities (for example, a CCJ mid‑year sample showing homicides down 17% across 30 cities through June 2025 versus the same period in 2024) [1] [2]. Some news outlets call out large city‑level swings — e.g., Philadelphia’s drop from 398 homicides in 2023 to 255 in 2024 — and separately note increases in a few cities such as Charlotte and Baton Rouge for 2024 [3].
1. What the major datasets cover — and what they don’t
Most of the cited work is either a 2024 year‑end look at 40 cities or a mid‑2025 comparison covering the first half of 2025 versus the same period in 2024. The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) year‑end report analyzes 40 cities through December 2024 and reports overall declines in violent crimes compared with pre‑pandemic years [4] while CCJ’s mid‑year 2025 update compares the first six months of 2025 to the first six months of 2024 (finding a 17% drop in homicides across 30 cities that reported homicide data) [1]. These sampling and timing choices mean national or city‑by‑city year‑over‑year rankings for the full 2024–2025 span are not presented in the available reports [4] [1].
2. Biggest aggregate shifts the reports highlight
CCJ’s mid‑year 2025 analysis emphasizes aggregate decreases: homicides fell 17% in the 30 cities that provided homicide data for the first half of 2025 versus the first half of 2024, and other violent offenses such as gun assaults and aggravated assault were down in that sample [1] [2]. National summaries and later aggregations likewise report that violent crime fell nationally in 2024 — for example, a separate review reports violent crime declined about 4% nationally in 2024 and murders fell sharply in many places [5] [6].
3. City examples reporters singled out
Individual outlets call out city‑level swings within those broader trends. The Associated Press noted Philadelphia’s large year‑over‑year decline in homicides — 398 in 2023 to 255 in 2024 — while also naming a handful of cities (Charlotte, Baton Rouge) that saw homicide increases in 2024 [3]. Other compilations and working papers highlight steep declines in cities such as Detroit, Richmond, Boston and Pittsburgh in 2024 reporting, and separate mid‑2025 city releases (e.g., Oakland, St. Louis) report mid‑year declines compared with 2024 [7] [8] [9].
4. Conflicting narratives and possible political uses
Government and partisan actors have used these datasets to support competing claims. The Department of Homeland Security cited CCJ’s mid‑year data to emphasize mid‑2025 declines in homicides and other violent offenses [10]. At the same time, national media coverage highlights that despite aggregate drops, political rhetoric has emphasized isolated cities with high rates or recent upticks, and may selectively cite different timeframes or city samples [2] [11]. The choice of which cities to include, and whether to compare full‑year 2024, mid‑year 2025, or 2019 baselines, materially affects which cities look like the “biggest gainers” or “biggest decliners” [4] [1].
5. Methodological limitations you should know
Available reporting relies on convenience samples (40 cities for CCJ year‑end 2024; 30 or 42 cities for various mid‑2025 slices) and on departments’ own reporting calendars, so city coverage is uneven [4] [1]. Media summaries often compare different periods (2023→2024 vs. first half of 2024→first half of 2025), which can produce divergent impressions about which cities moved the most [3] [2]. The FBI’s national tables are referenced for 2024 national rates, but city‑level FBI releases may lag and were used differently across reports [6] [12].
6. How to get a definitive city ranking if you need one
To produce a rigorous ranking of “largest year‑over‑year changes” for 2024–2025, you need (a) a consistent set of cities, (b) the same months covered in both years (full 12 months or matched half‑years), and (c) official city‑level counts for both periods. The CCJ datasets and media pieces point you to candidate cities and concrete examples (Philadelphia’s 2024 decline; cities with mid‑2025 homicide drops), but available sources do not publish a single, definitive 2024–2025 city ranking in one table that answers your original query directly [4] [1] [3].
7. Bottom line for readers and researchers
Current reporting shows broad decreases in violent crime across many sampled U.S. cities from 2024 into mid‑2025 — with CCJ documenting a 17% drop in homicides among reporting cities in the first half of 2025 versus 2024 and AP and other outlets citing large city‑level swings such as Philadelphia’s 2023→2024 drop [1] [3]. However, because published reports use different samples and timeframes, available sources do not present a single, authoritative list of which individual U.S. cities had the largest year‑over‑year changes for the full 2024–2025 period; researchers should match city coverage and timeframes before drawing firm rankings [4] [1].