Violent crime in the U.S. dropped 4.5% last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That marks the third year in a row with a drop in violent crimes across the nation.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter rates dropped even lower than overall violent crime, plummeting nearly 15% last year compared to 2023, per the FBI data. Rape category offenses dropped 5.2%, aggravated assault figures dropped 3% and robbery reports decreased by 8.9%.
To compile this data, the FBI collected information on more than 14 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) throughout last year through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Summary Reporting System. More than 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies were included in the figures, covering 95.6% of the country.
Coverage for the “Hate Crime collection” was slightly lower at 95.1% coverage with a total of 16,419 participating agencies. Analysis by the FBI indicates that hate crime incidents declined 1.5% last year, from 11,041 in 2023 to 10,873 in 2024.
Although the data shows a decrease in violent crime rates, a significant number of violent crimes still occurred in the country last year. Based on the FBI’s calculations, a violent crime happened every 25.9 seconds on average in 2024, including a murder every 31.1 minutes and a rape every 4.1 minutes.
Recently the White House issued an executive order about “crime and disorder on America’s streets,” though local data also shows crime is decreasing in large metropolitan areas like New York City, N.Y.; Los Angeles, Calif., and Chicago, Ill. Audacy also covered a new list of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. just last week.