CDC: 2020 saw highest increase in US homicide rate in modern history

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US in 2020 recorded its highest increase in rates of homicide in modern history. This comes as the CDC has launched a study on gun violence to get better data. In August, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky named gun violence a "public health threat."

Provisional data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics showed the homicide rate spiked 30 percent between 2019 and 2020. The previous highest increase in the homicide rate was a 20 percent, recorded from 2000 to 2001 because of the September 11 terror attacks.

According to NCHS, the homicide rate increased from about six homicides per 100,000 people in 2019 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2020. The FBI's Uniform Crime Report recorded about 21,570 murders in 2020, up from an estimated, which mirrored the 30 percent increase, and was single-year increase the agency has recorded since it began tracking homicides in the 1960s.
Only three states showed decreases in homicides over the same period, Maine, New Mexico and Alaska.