San salvador crime rate
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Executive summary
San Salvador and El Salvador have seen a dramatic fall in homicides: official and analyst data show the national homicide rate dropped to about 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024 (114 homicides) and to roughly 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024 in multiple reports (Statista/InSight Crime; Semafor) [1] [2]. Authorities credit mass arrests—tens of thousands detained under a long-running “state of exception”—with driving the decline, but human-rights groups warn of heavy civil‑liberties costs and prison abuses [3] [2] [4].
1. What the headline numbers tell you: dramatic drops in homicide
El Salvador’s homicide rate fell from more than 100 per 100,000 in 2015 to single digits and then fractional rates: analysts and data aggregators report 2.3 per 100,000 in 2023 and 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024, with 114 recorded homicides in 2024, a historic low for the country [5] [2] [1]. Statista’s chart based on InSight Crime gives 1.9 homicides per 100,000 for 2024, confirming the sharp national decline since 2015 [1].
2. San Salvador: city-level context is not fully separable in available sources
Most sources in this set discuss national homicide trends and the government’s security strategy rather than a granular, up‑to‑date San Salvador city crime rate. Wikipedia’s historical entry notes very high city murder rates in years past (over 90 per 100,000 in prior decades), but current, city‑specific official figures are not provided in the available reporting set; available sources do not mention a recent, independently confirmed homicide rate for San Salvador city specifically [6].
3. Why the decline happened, according to government and analysts
Salvadoran authorities point to the Territorial Control Plan and the prolonged state of exception—which enabled mass arrests and expanded police/military powers—as the primary drivers of the decline. Government figures and security analysts assert the policy produced a measurable reduction in homicides: between 2015 and 2024 the government reports a reduction of more than 98% in the homicide rate, and police data underpin many of the published low figures [3] [5] [1].
4. Human‑rights and humanitarian counterpoint: trade‑offs and abuses
Human Rights Watch, Semafor and other reporting highlight the other side: mass detentions—tens of thousands of people arrested since March 2022—have produced serious human‑rights concerns. Semafor notes roughly 80,000 jailed without due process and dozens or hundreds of deaths in custody tied to the crackdown; Human Rights Watch documents the historic peak and sharp fall in homicides while also reporting restrictions and rights complaints [2] [4] [3].
5. Numbers on arrests, incarceration and sustainability
Congressional reporting and multiple analyses document large-scale detentions: Salvadoran authorities reported detaining 84,000 people alleged to be gang‑affiliated through January 2025, and other outlets report similar or larger cumulative arrest totals, which have produced overcrowded prisons and the world’s highest incarceration rate by some measures [3] [7] [8]. Critics question whether the strategy is sustainable and whether the security gains are durable without legal safeguards and institutional reforms [5] [8].
6. How to interpret safety for visitors or residents of San Salvador
Perception surveys (Numbeo) and local reporting remain mixed: some residents say the country feels safer now than a decade ago, while others and independent NGOs warn that coercive security practices and unresolved social drivers of crime leave long‑term risks [9] [10]. Travelers and residents should note that the most reliable figures available in this source set speak to national homicide declines rather than fine‑grained, neighborhood‑level safety in San Salvador [1] [2].
7. What’s missing and how to follow up
Available sources in this set focus on national homicide statistics, government policies, and human‑rights responses; contemporaneous, city‑level crime maps or independent San Salvador police precinct data are not included here—available sources do not mention a current city‑level homicide rate for San Salvador separate from national figures [6] [1]. For local planning, consult up‑to‑date municipal police bulletins or independent crime analysts and cross‑check with human‑rights reporting.
Summary takeaway: national homicide statistics show a steep, well‑documented decline to about 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024 (114 homicides), but the policy mix that produced that outcome—mass detentions under a prolonged state of exception—has produced serious human‑rights concerns and very high incarceration rates; city‑level San Salvador figures are not detailed in the current reporting set and warrant separate verification [1] [3] [2] [4].