In 2020, there were more than 24,500 deaths in the United States attributable to homicides according to data compiled by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. A closer examination of that data identifies the states in the table below as being the ten states with the highest homicide rates in 2020.  Collectively, this group held just under 17% of the total U.S. population but accounted for 28% of the country's homicides in 2020.  At 12.6 deaths per 100,000 population, the collective homicide rate of this group was more than two-thirds higher than the national homicide rate in 2020.

Ten States with the Highest Homicide Rates

**	State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
1	Mississippi	576	2,966,786	19.4
2	Louisiana	873	4,645,318	18.8
3	Alabama	654	4,921,532	13.3
4	Missouri	803	6,151,548	13.1
5	Arkansas	371	3,030,522	12.2
6	South Carolina	622	5,218,040	11.9
7	Tennessee	753	6,886,834	10.9
8	Illinois	1,353	12,587,530	10.7
9	Maryland	649	6,055,802	10.7
10	New Mexico	216	2,106,319	10.3
	Sub-total	6,870	54,570,231	12.6
	U.S.	24,576	329,484,123	7.5

(**) death rate ranking from highest to lowest
(*) 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