Is violent crime going up or down in the US?
Reported violent crime was 329.3 per 100,000 residents in 2025, against 797.8 at its peak in 1991 and 570.1 in 1985. It is far below where it was a generation ago and has moved within a narrow band for several years.
Answer current as of
Violent crime is 58.7% below its 1991 peak
Violent crime reported per 100,000 residents, 1985 to 2025, using the FBI’s own population denominator for the agencies that reported. Only years with all twelve months are drawn.
The dashed line is 2021, when the FBI retired summary reporting and the share of the population living in a reporting agency’s jurisdiction fell to 77.0%. A step in the line there is a change in who reported, not a change in how much crime happened.
The peak was 797.8 per 100,000 in 1991; 2025 was 329.3.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division — FBI Crime Data Explorer API
The figures behind this chart
| Year | Violent crime | Population covered |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 570.1 | 95.9% |
| 1986 | 633.5 | 95.4% |
| 1987 | 624.6 | 95.0% |
| 1988 | 630.0 | 88.9% |
| 1989 | 679.8 | 94.8% |
| 1990 | 749.5 | 94.7% |
| 1991 | 797.8 | 91.9% |
| 1992 | 785.3 | 93.2% |
| 1993 | 764.0 | 92.4% |
| 1994 | 740.3 | 92.2% |
| 1995 | 720.3 | 88.8% |
| 1996 | 658.5 | 87.0% |
| 1997 | 643.2 | 88.4% |
| 1998 | 602.9 | 88.2% |
| 1999 | 545.1 | 89.4% |
| 2000 | 533.9 | 89.8% |
| 2001 | 529.1 | 90.6% |
| 2002 | 512.6 | 92.2% |
| 2003 | 493.3 | 91.8% |
| 2004 | 478.3 | 93.5% |
| 2005 | 482.7 | 93.2% |
| 2006 | 486.8 | 95.7% |
| 2007 | 477.7 | 96.3% |
| 2008 | 463.6 | 96.7% |
| 2009 | 436.7 | 96.8% |
| 2010 | 407.9 | 97.9% |
| 2011 | 390.0 | 98.0% |
| 2012 | 390.5 | 98.1% |
| 2013 | 377.9 | 97.6% |
| 2014 | 373.6 | 97.4% |
| 2015 | 384.4 | 97.6% |
| 2016 | 399.4 | 97.7% |
| 2017 | 397.3 | 96.5% |
| 2018 | 384.7 | 97.5% |
| 2019 | 380.8 | 96.2% |
| 2020 | 399.1 | 95.9% |
| 2021 | 361.2 | 77.0% |
| 2022 | 398.3 | 94.8% |
| 2023 | 385.6 | 95.9% |
| 2024 | 363.4 | 96.4% |
| 2025 | 329.3 | 96.4% |
Where this comes from
The figure is the result of a checked-in query, national_trend.sql, run against the published data. Every number on this page can be traced to it.