Over 24,500 deaths in the United States in 2020 were attributable to homicides according to data compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, a unit of the CDC. A closer inspection of that data reveals the states in the table below to be the ten states with the lowest homicide rates in 2020.  This group collectively was home to 9% of the total U.S. population but accounted for only 3.7% of all U.S. homicide deaths in 2020.  At 3.1 deaths per 100,000 population, the collective homicide rate of this group was nearly 59% lower than the national homicide rate in 2020.

Ten States with the Lowest Homicide Rates

**	State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
41	North Dakota	30	765,309	3.9
42	Oregon	157	4,241,507	3.7
43	Minnesota	198	5,657,342	3.5
44	Iowa	106	3,163,561	3.4
45	Hawaii	46	1,407,006	3.3
46	Utah	95	3,249,879	2.9
47	Massachusetts	183	6,893,574	2.7
48	Rhode Island	29	1,057,125	2.7
49	Idaho	42	1,826,913	2.3
50	Maine	21	1,350,141	1.6
	Sub-total	907	29,612,357	3.1
	U.S.	24,576	329,484,123	7.5

(**) death rate ranking from highest to lowest (minimum 20 reported deaths)
(*) number of homicide deaths per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on May 14, 2022

The latest occupational employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows more than 180,000 medical records specialists at work in the United States as of May 2021. With just under 7,200 medical records specialists employed as of May 2021, the six-state New England region accounted for about 4% of medical records specialist employment in the U.S.  The region was one of the stronger ones nationally for medical records specialist pay.  Although two New England states ranked in the bottom quartile of all states for medical records specialist annual mean wages, Connecticut and Massachusetts both ranked among the top five states nationally for that pay metric, and those two states were home to over 60% of the region's medical records specialist jobs. From May 2021 BLS data, here is a closer look at medical records specialist pay in New England:

Medical Records Specialist Pay in New England

State	# Employed	Annual Mean Wages	Wage Rank*
CT	1,230	$57,480	5th
MA	3,160	$58,950	3rd
ME	1,010	$41,120	48th
NH	710	$43,790	39th
RI	600	$51,520	14th
VT	470	$45,090	30th
U.S.	180,570	$48,310	-------

(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data accessed on May 14, 2022