The U.S. saw a historical decrease in the number of homicides across the country last year, according to a new report.
AH Datalytics, a data firm that provides analytics to organizations including law enforcement, found a nearly 13% drop in the murder rate over the last year. The number of murders decreased by 1,266 in 2023 with a total of 8,656 total compared to 9,922 in 2022.
Even though the total number of murders may have decreased across the country, some individual jurisdictions saw major spikes. Washington, D.C., had a 35% increase in homicides, keeping it in the No. 1 spot for murders per capita, according to WalletHub data and AH Datalytics.
But there were large cities like Detroit that recorded the fewest total homicides it has had in almost 60 years.
The overall decrease comes after the historic jump in homicides seen at the start of the pandemic where murder rates shot up, rising 30% between 2019 and 2020 — one of the largest single-year increases on record.
Even with the statistical dip, most Americans, 77%, believe there is more crime in the U.S. than a year ago, according to a recent Gallup poll. A 55% majority said the same about crime in their local area.
Gallup said figures are similar to what it measured last year and rank among the most pessimistic readings in the respective trends.
While homicide rates apparently declined in 2023, the year saw the most mass shootings recorded in a single year with a total of 630. That record number is according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as involving a minimum of four victims either injured or killed.
AH Datalytics used data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their analysis, which can make it hard to gather a national scope since changes in reporting requirements allow law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to voluntarily report their statistics.
US ends 2023 with record for most mass killings in a single year
Among the 630 mass shootings recorded, there were 1,463 unintentional shootings, 39,951 deaths, and 34,107 injuries.
