Which countries in North America have the highest homicide rate?
Like this map and want to support Landgeist? The best way to support Landgeist, is by sharing this map. When you share this map, make sure that you credit Landgeist and link to the source article. If you share it on Instagram, just tag @Land_geist. On Twitter tag @Landgeist.
Of all crime statistics, the homicide rate is considered to be one of the most reliable ones. Unlike other crimes, homicides (almost) always get reported to the police, whereas robbery and theft might be under-reported due to people not bothering to report it. However, let’s not exclude the fact that many authoritarian regimes are very opaque about statistics that make them look bad, including homicide. Although this is probably not the case for the countries on this map.
Central America and the Caribbean don’t have a very good reputation when it comes to homicide rates. This map shows that that reputation is correct for quite a few of those countries. North America is represented with 16 countries in the global top 25. The global number one is Venezuela, with a rate of 49.9. The other countries in the global top 10 (apart from South Africa) are all North American. Jamaica (43.9) has the highest homicide rate in North America and the second highest in the world.
Looking at the data in more detail at the state/province level for Mexico, the US and Canada, we can see that the top of the ranking is dominated by Mexican states. the state of Colima, has the highest rate in North America (89.2), followed by Baja California (80.6) and Guanajuato (80.1). At the national level, Mexico has a homicide rate of 34.3, for the US it’s 7.37 and for Canada 2.0.
The homicide rate of 2.0 makes Canada the second safest country in North American in terms of homicides. Both Yukon and Bermuda had no homicides in 2020 and 2019 respectively. Prince Edward Island (0.6) and Newfoundland and Labrador (0.8) are the only other areas in North America with a homicide rate lower than 1.0.
For reference, the highest homicide rate in Europe is 3.32 in Latvia. keep in mind that the European numbers are age-adjusted, whereas the numbers on this map are not. I’ve also made a map of the age-adjusted homicide rate in the US before.
Landgeist 