Which US states had the highest firearm homicide and suicide rates in 2024 per 100,000 residents?

1. Firearm homicide — the top places and how they’re measured

Analysts who compile interstate homicide comparisons frequently single out Washington, D.C. as having the highest age‑adjusted firearm homicide rate in recent years — the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation cites an age‑adjusted firearm homicide rate for DC of about 14.4 per 100,000 in comparative material ^[1] — but state lists published by crime‑data aggregators name Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico and South Carolina among the states with the highest overall homicide rates in 2024‑or‑nearby reports, reflecting FBI and state reporting patterns ^[5]. Differences in top rankings come down to methodology: some measures use age‑adjusted firearm‑specific homicide rates and include the District of Columbia as a separate jurisdiction (which raises its rank), while other listings present raw or per‑state homicide rates that spread lethal violence across larger state populations ^{[1] [5]}.

2. Firearm suicide — where rates are highest and why

Firearm suicide concentrates in rural, high‑ownership states; KFF’s analysis of CDC underlying‑cause data identifies Wyoming with the highest firearm suicide rate — about 20.9 per 100,000 — and notes wide variation between states (Wyoming versus New Jersey/Massachusetts at the low end), linking differences to gun access and policy environments ^[2]. Other compilations of gun‑death per capita (which combine suicides and homicides) repeatedly list Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alabama and Mississippi among the highest overall, underscoring that suicides — not homicides — drive the top per‑capita gun‑death figures in many of those states ^{[6] [7]}.

3. Why single‑year “2024 per 100,000” claims are tricky

Most publicly available, reputable national comparisons rely on multi‑year averages or on CDC WONDER underlying‑cause data that lag calendar years; Everytown’s state summaries explicitly use a five‑year average (2019–2023) and note that the term “homicide” can include police shootings, while county‑level public‑health releases warn that denominator changes and updated race categories affect year‑to‑year comparability ^{[3] [4]}. In plain terms: a clean, finalized set of state‑by‑state firearm homicide and suicide rates strictly for calendar year 2024 may not yet be nationally released in a single authoritative table, so most summaries depend on either the most recent multi‑year CDC series or other institutions’ 2024 reports that themselves use slightly different methods ^{[3] [4]}.

4. What the pattern suggests about causes and policy debates

Across sources, a stable pattern emerges: urbanized jurisdictions with concentrated violent crime problems (e.g., parts of the South and certain cities) show the highest firearm homicide burden, while rural, high‑ownership states show the highest firearm suicide burden — a geographic bifurcation that shapes distinct policy arguments about policing, community investment, firearm access and suicide prevention ^{[5] [6] [2]}. Researchers and public‑health centers (Johns Hopkins, IHME, KFF) point to structural drivers (poverty, policing and healthcare access) and to laws and storage practices as actionable correlates, but they also acknowledge methodological limits and cross‑jurisdiction spillover ^{[8] [1] [2]}.

5. Bottom line and reporting caveat

Using the cited, contemporary compilations, Washington, D.C. ranks highest for firearm homicide on age‑adjusted comparisons (≈14.4/100k) and Wyoming ranks highest for firearm suicide (≈20.9/100k), with a cluster of Southern and Western states appearing consistently near the top of combined gun‑death lists; however, these conclusions rely on multi‑year and age‑adjusted CDC and research center data rather than a single, fully harmonized “2024 only” national table, a limitation signals in the source materials ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.