How does the murder rate in Los Angeles compare to Washington DC in 2025?
Executive summary
Los Angeles recorded about 220 homicides so far in 2025 and is on pace for its lowest total since the pandemic, while Washington, D.C. showed declining homicide totals and provisional drops in violent crime in 2024–25; specific per‑capita rates for 2025 are variably reported across outlets (LA raw count: 220 in 2025 [1]; DC provisional homicide and violent‑crime declines cited by MPD and summarized in Newsweek and PBS [2] [3]). Coverage in the available dataset focuses on raw counts and trend direction rather than a single authoritative 2025 homicide rate comparison (not found in current reporting).
1. Big picture: raw counts versus rates — why the distinction matters
News coverage emphasizes raw city homicide totals for 2025 (Los Angeles: about 220 killings year‑to‑date, per Washington Post reporting) but many analysts prefer per‑capita homicide rates to compare cities of different sizes; Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C. are very different in population and geography, so raw numbers can mislead without rate adjustments (LA raw count in 2025 reported as 220 [1]; sources note that county vs. city data and differing population bases complicate direct comparisons [4]).
2. Where Los Angeles stands in 2025: fewer killings, improving trend
The Washington Post reports Los Angeles had recorded roughly 220 homicides so far in 2025 and that the city is “on pace for its lowest total since the pandemic,” after a peak near 400 homicides in 2021 — a clear downward trend in absolute killings for 2025 to date [1].
3. Where Washington, D.C. stands in 2025: declining homicides and mixed narratives
Multiple items in the record say Washington’s homicide totals and violent‑crime measures declined in 2024 and that MPD’s provisional 2025 figures show continued decreases — Newsweek and PBS summarize that the MPD reported a 32% drop in homicides for 2024 and year‑to‑date violent crime down in 2025, while PBS notes MPD data showing homicide rates continuing to decrease in 2025 [2] [3].
4. Conflicting frames: political claims, local police data, and skeptical commentary
The White House and national politicians framed DC’s crime as a crisis, prompting federal deployments, while local MPD and some outlets emphasize falling homicide totals; critics and opinion outlets question the interpretation or reliability of certain DC crime statistics (White House claims of high crime and federal steps described in White House posting [5]; skeptical commentary and critique of DC statistics appears in The Daily Signal [6]). PBS and Council on Criminal Justice provide data context that counters alarmist claims, saying MPD shows decreases in 2025 and noting historic variability [3] [7].
5. Per‑capita figures: what the available sources say (and don’t say)
Some sources give per‑capita context for earlier years — e.g., a 2024 DC homicide rate cited as 27.3 per 100,000 in one piece and later references to a 17.0 per 100,000 figure in 2025 rankings — but the provided documents do not supply a single, consistent, nationally standardized 2025 per‑100,000 homicide rate comparison between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. (references to DC rates: 27.3/100k for 2024 and 17.0/100k in some 2025 rankings are reported by secondary compilations in the dataset, but these figures vary across pieces) [8] [3]. Therefore, a definitive per‑capita comparison in 2025 is not present in the provided sources (not found in current reporting).
6. County vs. city measures and methodological traps
Analysts caution that Los Angeles County (which includes many cities) and the City of Los Angeles differ; USAFacts and other aggregators use county‑level data that can show Los Angeles County homicide counts separate from the City of Los Angeles totals, complicating apples‑to‑apples comparisons with a single‑jurisdiction city like Washington, D.C. (USAFacts notes differences in county‑level rankings and lists Los Angeles County homicide counts separately) [4].
7. Bottom line and what remains uncertain
Based on the available reporting, Los Angeles’s absolute homicide count in 2025 (~220, on pace for a pandemic‑era low) is lower than recent peaks, and Washington, D.C.’s MPD and several outlets report falling homicides and violent crime in 2024–25; however, the sources here do not provide a single, consistent per‑100,000 homicide rate for each city in 2025 that would allow a precise rate‑based ranking between LA and DC (LA raw 2025 count [1]; DC decreases and provisional 2025 decline noted [2] [3]; per‑capita comparison not found in current reporting). If you want a definitive rate comparison, the MPD daily crime dashboard and county/city crime databases (and a standardized population denominator) would need to be used to compute consistent 2025 per‑100,000 figures — those exact computed 2025 rates are not present in the sources supplied [9] [10].
Sources referenced above: Washington Post on LA 2025 counts [1]; Newsweek, PBS, Council on Criminal Justice and USAFacts for DC trends, provisional rates, and methodological notes [2] [3] [7] [4]; MPD daily dashboard and DC open data for raw DC reporting practices [9] [10]; White House and commentary pieces showing competing narratives [5] [6].