Murder rate jumps back to 1990s levels, data show

A new crime reporting system released by the FBI shows that the murder rate in virtually every city in the United States is at its highest levels in more than two decades.

In 2020, the country saw more homicides than in any year since 1998. Experts came to that conclusion after looking at reported quarterly data from roughly 12,000 agencies in various cities and states.

The spike, totaling at over 20,000 recorded homicides, was the largest one-year increase in U.S. history. Every city that reported data saw at least a 20%-25% jump in murders. Twenty-two percent of cities with a population of over 250,000 that reported data saw the most murders ever recorded since the federal government began keeping logs in 1960.

“We’ve never seen an increase like that. Previously the biggest one-year increase in murder was a 12.5% increase in the 1960s," statistician and crime analyst Jeff Asher told the Washington Examiner. "We’re really talking about unprecedented increases in murder."