In 2020, there were more than 24,576 homicide deaths recorded in the United States according to data compiled by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The five counties that comprise New York City (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond) recorded 462 homicide deaths that year per NCHS data. With an area wide population of 8.25 million people, the homicide death rate for New York City was 5.6 deaths per 100,000 population in 2020. While popularly perceived as having a high murder rate, New York City's homicide rate in 2020 was in reality 25% lower than the national average homicide rate of 7.5 deaths per 100,000 population. Moreover, NCHS data reveals that in 2020 there were 32 states with higher homicide rates than New York City.

States with Higher Homicide Rates than New York City

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Mississippi	576	2,966,786	19.4
Louisiana	873	4,645,318	18.8
Alabama	654	4,921,532	13.3
Missouri	803	6,151,548	13.1
Arkansas	371	3,030,522	12.2
South Carolina	622	5,218,040	11.9
Tennessee	753	6,886,834	10.9
Illinois	1,353	12,587,530	10.7
Maryland	649	6,055,802	10.7
New Mexico	216	2,106,319	10.3
Georgia	1,093	10,710,017	10.2
Indiana	620	6,754,953	9.2
Kentucky	404	4,477,251	9.0
Delaware	86	986,809	8.7
Ohio	1,004	11,693,217	8.6
Oklahoma	342	3,980,783	8.6
North Carolina	884	10,600,823	8.3
Michigan	811	9,966,555	8.1
Pennsylvania	994	12,783,254	7.8
Alaska	55	731,158	7.5
Texas	2,212	29,360,759	7.5
Arizona	525	7,421,401	7.1
Florida	1,530	21,733,312	7.0
Nevada	217	3,138,259	6.9
Kansas	195	2,913,805	6.7
West Virginia	114	1,784,787	6.4
Virginia	531	8,590,563	6.2
California	2,368	39,368,078	6.0
Montana	65	1,080,577	6.0
South Dakota	52	892,717	5.8
Colorado	336	5,807,719	5.8
Wisconsin	334	5,832,655	5.7
Sub-total	21,642	255,179,683	8.5
U.S. Total	24,576	329,484,123	7.5
New York City Counties
Bronx County	128	1,401,142	9.1
Kings County	169	2,538,934	6.7
New York County	63	1,611,989	3.9
Queens County	82	2,225,821	3.7
Richmond County	20	475,327	4.2
NYC Sub-total	462	8,253,213	5.6

(*) 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 August 24, 2022