Homicides accounted for more than 24,500 deaths in the U.S. in the 2020 calendar year.  In the four-state Southwestern U.S., there were nearly 3,300 homicides that year.   Consistent with a pattern seen nationally, the homicide death rate for men in the region was substantially higher than it was for women.  However, while the region's male homicide rate of 12.3 deaths per 100,000 men was on par with the national average, female homicides occurred at a rate of 3.2 deaths per 100,000 women, which was more than 14% above the national level.  Collectively, the Southwestern U.S. had the third-highest regional homicide death rate in 2020. A closer examination of data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics provides the following details about male vs. female homicide rates in the Southwestern U.S. region:

Male vs. Female Homicide Rates in the Southwestern U.S.

	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Regionwide	3,295	42,869,262	7.7
Male	2,612	21,280,617	12.3
Female	683	21,588,645	3.2
Nationwide	24,576	329,484,123	7.5
Male	19,958	162,256,202	12.3
Female	4,618	167,227,921	2.8

(*) number of homicide deaths per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

States in Region:  Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas

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 January 4, 2023