The historic spike in murders in 2020 came during a tumultuous year in American history. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and surging unemployment, gun sales spiked, and the murder of George Floyd rattled confidence in law enforcement and sparked nationwide protests.

Over the 10-year period from 2011 to 2020, the number of murders reported in the U.S. climbed by 47%. Now, the national murder rate is the highest it has been since 1997.

Currently, the murder rate in Louisiana is higher than the national average. There were 15.8 murders for every 100,000 people in the state in 2020, compared to the national homicide rate of 6.5 per 100,000.

All data in this story is from the FBI’s 2011 and 2020 Uniform Crime Report.

 

Rank State 10-yr. change in homicides (%) Murders in 2020 Murders in 2011 Murders per 100k people, 2020
1 Minnesota 153.3 190 75 3.4
2 Iowa 152.3 111 44 3.5
3 Wisconsin 123.2 308 138 5.3
4 Kentucky 113.9 323 151 7.2
5 Hawaii 105.0 41 20 2.9
6 Utah 104.0 102 50 3.1
7 Arkansas 100.6 321 160 10.6
8 South Dakota 100.0 40 20 4.5
9 Missouri 97.5 723 366 11.8
10 Colorado 89.7 294 155 5.1
11 Montana 86.2 54 29 5.0
12 Washington 84.7 301 163 3.9
13 Tennessee 74.5 663 380 9.6
14 Virginia 72.4 524 304 6.1
15 Georgia 71.8 943 549 8.8
16 South Carolina 71.6 549 320 10.5
17 North Carolina 71.1 852 498 8.0
18 Texas 70.9 1,931 1,130 6.6
19 Indiana 65.0 505 306 7.5
20 Ohio 64.0 820 500 7.0
21 Alaska 63.3 49 30 6.7
22 Rhode Island 60.0 32 20 3.0
23 Pennsylvania 57.9 1,009 639 7.9
24 Alabama 57.5 471 299 9.6
25 Delaware 52.1 73 48 7.4
26 Oregon 48.8 125 84 2.9
27 Illinois 47.4 1,151 781 9.1
28 Louisiana 45.1 734 506 15.8
29 Oklahoma 39.6 296 212 7.4
30 Maryland 38.6 553 399 9.1
31 Mississippi 35.8 315 232 10.6
32 West Virginia 34.5 117 87 6.6
33 North Dakota 33.3 32 24 4.2
34 Florida 31.1 1,290 984 5.9
35 Nevada 29.5 180 139 5.7
36 Arizona 29.2 513 397 6.9
37 Vermont 27.3 14 11 2.2
38 California 22.9 2,203 1,792 5.6
39 Michigan 22.2 754 617 7.6
40 Idaho 17.1 41 35 2.2
41 Connecticut 8.5 140 129 3.9
42 New York 5.1 808 769 4.2
43 New Mexico 3.8 164 158 7.8
44 Nebraska 1.5 69 68 3.6
45 Wyoming 0.0 18 18 3.1
46 Kansas -9.9 100 111 3.4
47 Massachusetts -13.0 160 184 2.3
48 New Jersey -13.4 329 380 3.7
49 Maine -15.4 22 26 1.6
50 New Hampshire -25.0 12 16 0.9