The United States recorded its lowest homicide rate in roughly 70 years during 2025, according to newly released FBI crime statistics, which also show a sharp nationwide decline in violent crime. The report found that murders, property crimes, and vehicle thefts all dropped significantly, while preliminary figures indicate the downward trend has continued into 2026.
According to the FBI’s annual crime report released Friday, the national homicide rate fell to 4.1 killings per 100,000 people in 2025, matching the levels recorded in 1955 and 1956. Overall violent crime declined by 9.3% during the year.
Criminal justice experts cautioned that the reasons behind the dramatic decrease remain uncertain, noting that violent crime has been falling nationwide since 2022 across communities with widely differing policies and political leadership. The FBI’s report is based on crime data voluntarily submitted by thousands of law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
“The homicide drop is historic and crystal clear. But right now, what’s driving it is about as clear as a glass of milk,” said Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice.
“Rates are falling in cities with very different public safety strategies, economic conditions, and political leadership,” Gelb said. “The consistency across the map should make us cautious about handing credit to any one leader, party, policy, or program before the evidence catches up.”
President Donald Trump highlighted the FBI’s findings during an appearance Friday at a police academy on Long Island, where he credited his administration’s law-and-order agenda for the decline in crime.
Trump contrasted his approach with that of the previous administration and criticized sanctuary city policies while emphasizing his support for law enforcement and actions such as deploying the National Guard in Washington and other locations.
“We ended the war on police, and we declared a very strong war on crime,” Trump said during the Long Island appearance.
Criminologists who have monitored crime trends in major U.S. cities had projected that the homicide rate could fall to approximately four killings per 100,000 residents, a level that would have marked the lowest since national recordkeeping began in 1900.
Although the final figure came in slightly higher, the FBI reported a homicide rate of 4.1 per 100,000 people, tying the rates recorded in 1955 and 1956 as the lowest in the modern era.
The report also found that murders and non-negligent manslaughters declined by 18.1% between 2024 and 2025. Property crime also dropped substantially, falling 12.4% over the same period.
Motor vehicle theft, which surged during 2022 and 2023 following a social media trend that exploited security flaws in certain Kia and Hyundai models, declined by nearly 23%, reaching its lowest level in more than two decades.
In an unusual step, the FBI also included preliminary data showing that violent crime has continued to decrease during the first half of 2026, rather than waiting until year-end statistics become available. The update comes as Republicans have increasingly pointed to falling crime rates ahead of the midterm elections.
Separate data from the Council on Criminal Justice also suggests the trend is continuing, with homicides in the cities it tracks falling another 18% during the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.
The report also noted the dramatic spike in violent crime that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when homicides surged by nearly 30% in 2020—the largest single-year increase since the FBI began collecting national crime statistics. Since then, violent crime has steadily declined, approaching pre-pandemic levels by 2022.
The FBI compiles its annual report through the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which gathers standardized crime data from law enforcement agencies across the country. The 2025 report includes submissions from more than 17,000 agencies—representing over 87% of participating departments—and covers communities totaling nearly 329 million Americans.
