By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Chicago was once again the nation’s homicide capital in 2024 with 573 murders – the 13th year in a row that the Windy City has suffered more murders than anywhere else in the country. New York, Houston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles rounded out the top five for most murders.
St. Louis was the nation’s other murder capital when based on homicides per capita. The Gateway City suffered 52.9 homicides per 100,000 residents, marking the third year in a row St. Louis has held that title. Memphis was in 2nd-place with 38.0 homicides per 100,000. 2024 marks the second year in a row the city has been the runner-up. Rounding out the top five were Baltimore with 35.6 murders per 100,000, New Orleans with 34.1 and Detroit with 32.1.
The data compiled by Wirepoints is based on 2024 homicide totals for the nation’s 75 biggest cities, assembled via year-end city police compstat reports, various news articles and other sources. (When possible Wirepoints counted only criminal homicides, excluding cases of justifiable self-defense.)
Murders in 2024 continued their downward trend after peaking in the early pandemic/George Floyd period.
Remarkably, Jacksonville murders fell by 48% last year, while cities like New Orleans, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. dropped by more than 30%. In contrast, Chicago and New York missed most of that drop, falling just 8% and 4%, respectively.
The report below includes the following sections:
- Homicides, America’s 20 biggest cities, 2024
- Change in total homicides, 2024 vs. 2023
- Change in homicides per capita, 2024 vs. 2023
- Total homicides, 2024 vs. 2019
Homicides across the 20 biggest cities, 2024
The nation’s list of top five most-murderous cities has changed over time, with cities like Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Houston, New York, and Baltimore falling on and off depending on the year.
The one constant for more than a decade has been Chicago. The Windy City has always taken the top spot, often by a large margin.
In 2024, Chicago’s 573 murders once again led the nation. New York came in 2nd with 377 murders, followed by Houston’s 322. Rounding out the top five were Philadelphia (269) and Los Angeles (259).
Chicago also took the top spot of highest murder rate among big cities in 2024, a position usually held by Philadelphia. However, Philadelphia’s significant drop in homicides in 2024 caused its homicide rate to fall from 26.4 in 2023 to 17.3, below Chicago’s own 21.5.
Indianapolis ended up in 2nd with 19.7 murders per 100,000, and Philly placed 3rd. Dallas at 14.0 and Houston with 13.9 murders comprised the nation’s top five.
Chicago’s murder rate of 21.5 per 100,000 population was 3 times that of Los Angeles and nearly 5 times higher than New York’s. That’s a staggering difference.
Chicago would have had just 122 homicides last year if it had the same murder rate as the Big Apple. Conversely, New York City would have suffered 1,775 murders if it had Chicago’s homicide rate (compared to the 377 it had).
Total homicides, 2024 vs. 2023
Homicides have steadily declined over the past several years from their peak during the early pandemic period. That falling trend continued in 2024. In all, 19 of the top 20 cities for total homicides experienced fewer murders in 2024 as compared to 2023. Only Indianapolis stayed flat with 173 murders, same as last year.
Those declines were not evenly distributed, however. Some cities experienced double-digit decreases while others saw little difference in their level of bloodshed.
The nation’s best performer was Jacksonville, where homicides collapsed almost 50% versus 2023, a decrease of 76 deaths. New Orleans and Washington D.C. homicides dropped by over a third with 68 and 87 fewer murders, respectively.
Philadelphia’s murders also fell by a third in 2024 with 140 less deaths – a remarkable drop considering the city has been nearly as murder-prone as Chicago in previous years.
On the opposite end of the homicide decline are cities like Chicago and St. Louis.
St. Louis experienced a small decline of just 7% – leaving it as the nation’s homicide-per-capita capital for the third year in a row. And Chicago’s 8% decline – 573 murders in 2024 versus 620 in 2023 – was the 4th-lowest among the top 20.
Some might note that murders in Chicago’s big-city peers New York City and Houston also dropped by relatively small amounts, just 4% and 7%, respectively. But it’s important to note that both cities, especially New York, already have far lower murder rates, making big percentage drops more difficult for them.
The 2024 homicide rate in Houston was just 13.9 per 100,000 and New York’s was even lower at 4.6 per 100,000, far lower than Chicago’s 21.5.
Chicago’s poor performance vis-à-vis the rest of the country should give city leaders pause before celebrating the Windy City’s decline in homicides. The simple fact is the city is still experiencing far too much bloodshed.
Mayor Brandon Johnson talks about getting homicides below 500 a year – but that’s far too unambitious.
Chicago’s first goal should be to match the homicide rate of a city like Houston, with 13.9 per 100,000 murders. At that rate, Chicago would have just 371 murders.
If Chicago finally reformed its criminal justice policies and brought down its per capita homicides to the levels of Los Angeles or New York City, its murders would fall to 181 or 122, respectively. It’s not impossible. Los Angeles and New York City used to be just as violent as Chicago in the 1990s.
Homicides per capita, 2024 vs. 2023
Like above, a vast majority of cities with the most homicides per capita experienced declines in 2024, many of them significant. Greensboro, NC had the biggest year-over-year decline of 42%. The city’s homicide rate dropped from 24.5 to 14.2 per 100,000 residents. And the cities of New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Washington D.C. and Oakland all experienced rate declines of about a third.
On the flip side, the nation’s per-capita homicide capital St. Louis saw a murder rate drop of just 8%, the nation’s 6th-worst decline out of the top 20 most-murderous cities.
Atlanta’s murder rate declined just 6% over the year, falling to 24.9 murders per 100,000. And Louisville experienced a 1% drop in its rate, coming down to a rate of 23.1.
Overall, 18 of the top 20 cities for homicides per capita experienced fewer murders in 2024 vs. 2023. Indianapolis stayed flat with 19.7 murders per 100,000 and Cincinnati experienced a small increase of 1% (from 22.5 to 22.8).
Total homicides, 2024 vs. 2019
Most cities’ 2024 homicides, while down far from their 2020-2021 peak, are still higher than they were in 2019.
Of the top 20 cities with the most 2024 homicides, 15 still had more homicides in 2024 than they did in 2019. Collectively, there were 4,205 homicides in 2024 versus 3,980 in 2019.
Atlanta is the worst off with 127 homicides in 2014 – 81% more than in 2019. New Orleans homicides are still 59% higher. Louisville homicides are 55% higher. Milwaukee and San Antonio murders are still up by about a third of their 2019 levels. Chicago ranks near the middle of the list. It had 73 more homicides in 2024 compared to 2019, or 15% more.
Interestingly, there are a few notable cities that have managed to drop their homicides below 2019 levels, some of them significantly.
Kansas City and Dallas managed small declines of 5% and 8%, respectively. And Baltimore’s homicides are down by 42% – the result of having 147 less homicides than in 2019.
Unfortunately for St. Louis, the 45 fewer murders it experienced in 2024 compared to 2019 was not enough for another city to take the title of nation’s homicide rate capital.
Note: The following cities of the nation’s 75 most-populous were excluded from this report as no reliable 2024 homicide data was found: Raleigh city, NC, Miami, FL, Bakersfield, CA, Wichita, KS, Anaheim, CA, Irvine, CA, Santa Ana, CA, Anchorage, AK, North Las Vegas, NV, Chula Vista, CA, Lubbock, TX, St. Petersburg, FL, Irving, TX, Chesapeake, VA. The next-most populous cities with available homicide data were included in their place.
Appendix.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
And Trump says that the Migration from Venezuela that he created during his first office imposing criminals sanctions like Hitler to break the country and overthrown the President today Nicolas Maduro, it did not work. Now we are the only criminals in the US??, stupid to believe in that. Trump lied, Rubio rancio cubano anti venezolano, he is the promotor of all that. He wants to be president of Cuba. The reason Trump gave him the power. He Controls the very strong Gusanera Cubana in Miami, they call them that. They have money and power to reconker Cuba, and Rubio… Read more »
This was before trump got in office u dope …. look at the stats and the year … u contradicted urself — He was in 2019 not 2024 or 2023 LOL
Please add the Party of the Mayor’s for all these cities to the data!
I am always suspicious when someone use per capita data. Look at the first chart, chicago vs st louis. Based on a per square mile basis of the two cities you still have 8.44% higher chance of getting murdered in chicago. If you must go to chicago, don’t travel around just stay with large crowds. Very sad…
Come to Chicago as a tourist and leave a lasting mark…..a chalk outline on a sidewalk
When you look deeper at the Chicago numbers at a site like Hey Jackass!, you find that in 2024 Chicago’s murder victims with around 75% black and 22% Hispanic, and as most murder in interracial that means that at least from a murder standpoint you are pretty safe in Chicago if you are White or Asian. If you are black on the other hand….
There are a handful of white homicides every year, but if you look a little closer, they are misclassified. Pedro or Jose in little village is sometimes classified as white, giving the appearance of a handful of white homicides, even though there are really not. The white and asian homicide rate in chicago is likely less than 1 per 100,000….around the same levels as Italy or France.
Now the property crime and violent crime…that’s an entirely different issue…
In addition look deeper and you will find that of the 3% of “all other races combined” involved in shootings and homicides that about half, 1.5 % are victims because a black or hispanic shot or killed them. The real number of whites and all other races being responsible for these violent crimes is close to 1%.
Poster at airport in Paris and London: “Chicago is the Hot Spot to Be!”.
When looking at murder and shooting statistics let’s talk about the elephant in the room no on wants to touch. Chicago’s population is about 30% black, yet blacks make up about 75% to 80% of the murder/shooting victims. Nationally blacks make up about 13% of the population yet account for over 50 % of the murder victims. The vast majority of these crimes are black on black. Until the black community addresses this issue within their communities, this violence will continue despite what north side liberals are thinking and doing.
Where in all this mayhem is the Rev. Al Sharpton? Not one little peep from him but he does show up on the 50th Anniversary SNL show. But if a white cop shoots a young black man he’s there in a heartbeat.
He’s stilling spending the $200,000 from Kamala for letting her on his show.
According to Brandon, crime is down in Chicago. He must not read or watch the news.
The lefties will point out that Chicago was not even in the top 10 in homicides per capita in 2024. There, don’t you now feel safer during your walk in Chicago?
Crime on Brandon’s block is down, that’s true. But it takes a 150-officer proverbial army of CPD cops to assure that crime reduction effort on a high-priority Black Mayor’s block in Chicago.
When you take into account the high murder rate, the abortion rate, the drug and alcohol abuse, and poor diet, there is a genocide being carried out on poor people, black especially.
Black pols presiding over a genocide of black men. And just standing by. While importing illegal aliens to keep wages low, and don’t speak the language so they cannot understand how they are being ripped oof.
Also inferior health care and high mortality rates for mothers and infant during pregnancy and after birth in most inner cities. Many use the ER as their primary physicians at a huge cost to everyone.
Lack of a good education and getting good information to keep them healthy is keeping them in the dark. Food deserts and lack of healthy nutrition is keeping them sick.
I’m guessing any grocery stores that move in will keep the status quo by having an abundance of tasty treats full of sugar, carbs, sodium, etc. The store managers will make sure those products are positioned at eye level.
We have finally achieved “equity”! Black “leaders” are just as corrupt as white leaders, and have more disdain and disrespect for people in the “community” than even those that were racists. Imagine they get the reigns in county, city, legislature, and by all measures, their constituents are doing even worse. Plus, they bring in illegal. Immigrants and give them more services that the black voters get. They stuff the schools illegal migrants for the additional funding they bring, while their citizen’s students cannot read near grade level. They give the parks and field houses of poor neighborhoods over to noncitizens… Read more »
Are there too many gang bangers in prison or too few?