FBI: Murder Rate Ties 1955 — The Lowest in the Bureau’s Recorded History
2025 posted the largest year-to-year drop in violent-crime rates since FBI estimates began in 1936. Murder fell 18.1 percent, to 4.1 per 100,000.
- FBI 2025 tables: largest year-to-year violent-crime rate drop since national estimates began in 1936.
- Murder down 18.1%; rate 4.1 per 100,000, tied with 1955 and 1956 for the series low.
- Rape −7.6%, aggravated assault −7.2%, robbery −18.5%; May preview had violent crime −9.3%.
- Coverage: 17,000-plus agencies, 96.2% of the population; comparable hate-crime incidents −7.0%.
- The Bureau did not attribute the drop to gun control or to gun ownership — the tables are the story.
The FBI released its 2025 Reported Crimes in the Nation statistics on August 14, 2026. From 2024 to 2025 the United States posted the largest year-to-year decline in violent-crime rates since FBI national estimates began in 1936. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter fell an estimated 18.1 percent. Rape dropped 7.6 percent. Aggravated assault fell 7.2 percent. Robbery fell 18.5 percent. The 2025 murder rate is 4.1 per 100,000 inhabitants — tied with 1955 and 1956 for the lowest murder rate in the Bureau’s series.
A May preview had already put the violent-crime decline at 9.3 percent. The August release filled in the offense tables from more than 13 million reported crimes. More than 17,000 state, county, city, tribal, and campus agencies covering 96.2 percent of the U.S. population submitted data through NIBRS and the Summary Reporting System. Property crime declined. Nearly 17,000 agencies (16,791) covering 95.3 percent of the population participated in the hate-crime collection. In the FBI’s comparable-agency set — agencies reporting six or more common months in both years — reported hate-crime incidents fell 7.0 percent, from 11,404 in 2024 to 10,606 in 2025.
The Bureau did not credit civilian gun ownership. It did not blame it. It published the scoreboard. AmmoLand recapped the tables Tuesday. The political claim that more guns in lawful hands must mean more murder now has to sit next to a murder rate last seen when Eisenhower was president. That is not a causal study. It is the FBI’s own numbers, and they are not on the prohibitionists’ side.
"Murder at 4.1 per 100,000 — tied with 1955. The bloodbath they sold you is not in the FBI tables."← More Stories
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