Intentional homicide kills several hundred thousand people a year, more than armed conflict and terrorism combined, and although the global rate has fallen since 2015, it is not falling fast enough to meet the goal of significantly reducing violent deaths by 2030.
Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa together are home to less than a quarter of the world's population. Roughly what share of the world's homicide victims did they account for in 2024?
5.1 per 100,000
Global homicide rate
Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 people worldwide in 2024, down 14% from 5.9 in 2015. A modelled global estimate based on national data.
Data year 2024. Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026
458,000
Homicide victims in one year
UNODC's latest published global count, for 2021, an exceptionally deadly year: about 52 victims every hour, more than were killed in armed conflict and terrorism combined.
Data year 2021. Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2023
47%
Homicides committed with firearms
Share of homicides with a known mechanism worldwide that involved a firearm in 2021, the most common means. In the Americas the share was 75%.
Data year 2021. Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2023
Unit: victims per 100,000 people
* Projection, not a measurement. UN estimates for 2015 and 2024 and a projection for 2030 (if current trends continue), from the UN's SDG Extended Report 2026. The 2030 value is a projection, not a measurement. The report gives no yearly values in between; it notes the rate had been stable at around 6 for a decade before 2015.
SDG target 16.1 calls for significantly reducing all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere by 2030, which the UN interprets as requiring at least a 50% cut in the global homicide rate. The rate fell by 14% between 2015 and 2024. If this trend continues it could reach 4.5 per 100,000 by 2030, a decline of about 25%, well short of the target.
Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa hold under a quarter of the world's population but accounted for almost two-thirds of homicide victims in 2024. Rates elsewhere ranged from about 0.9 per 100,000 in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia to 4.9 in Northern Africa and Western Asia.
Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026Around 193,000 young people aged 15–29 are killed in homicides each year, about 40% of the global total, and most victims are male. Homicide is among the leading causes of death in this age group.
Source: World Health Organization, 2026Men were 80% of homicide victims in 2024, but women face a different risk: almost 60% of women killed that year were killed by a partner or family member, compared with 11% of men. The share was highest in Africa.
Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026About 22% of homicides with known context worldwide are linked to organized crime or gangs, rising to around half in the Americas, where firearms are used in an estimated 75% of killings.
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2023Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in per 100,000 people.
Each country's latest available year from 2015 onwards (most are 2021–2023; years differ), based on national data compiled by UNODC. Countries without data since 2015 are left blank. Rates in places with very small populations can change sharply from one year to the next because a few cases make a large difference, and recording practices differ between countries.
Source: UNODC, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
ModerateThe global homicide rate fell from 5.9 to 5.1 per 100,000 between 2015 and 2024, after a decade of little change. But hundreds of thousands of people are still killed each year, and rates in Latin America and the Caribbean remain several times the global average.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateSeveral approaches have repeated evaluations showing fewer killings, including focused deterrence and some urban upgrading projects. Most evidence comes from quasi-experimental studies in a small number of countries, mainly the United States, and the effects tend to be smaller in the most rigorous studies.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowEvaluated programmes run in specific cities rather than as national policy in most countries, and WHO's recommended measures, such as firearm licensing, alcohol controls and urban upgrading, are applied unevenly. Programmes that depend on short-term funding can lose their effect when funding or staff are cut.
UNODC publishes harmonised national data and its methods, but data remain limited, especially in Africa and Asia, so global and African figures rely on statistical estimates, and UNODC's latest full global count dates from 2021.
The global rate has been declining since 2015 and is projected to reach about 4.5 per 100,000 by 2030. That is a real improvement, but only about half the reduction the SDG target requires.
Intentional homicide, the unlawful killing of a person with intent to cause death or serious injury, is one of the largest causes of violent death worldwide. UNODC's most recent global count found about 458,000 victims in 2021, an average of 52 every hour, and an annual average of around 440,000 over 2019–2021, roughly five times as many deaths as armed conflict in the same period. The global rate has been falling slowly: from 5.9 victims per 100,000 people in 2015 to 5.1 in 2024. Firearms are the most common means, used in 47% of homicides where the mechanism was known in 2021 and in 75% in the Americas, and around 22% of homicides with known context are linked to organized crime or gangs, rising to half in the Americas.
The burden is highly unequal. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 19.3 homicides per 100,000 people in 2024 and sub-Saharan Africa an estimated 11.7, compared with 0.9 in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia. Most victims (80% in 2024) and most perpetrators are men, especially young men: WHO estimates that around 193,000 young people aged 15–29 are killed each year, 40% of the global total. Women and girls are far more often killed at home: almost 60% of women killed in 2024 died at the hands of a partner or family member. Rates are not fixed: they have risen and fallen over time with social conditions and with policy.
Homicide statistics come from national records compiled and harmonised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Comparing countries requires a common definition and care with gaps:
Intentional homicide
An unlawful death inflicted on a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury. Civilian deaths in armed conflict are not included; the UN counts them separately under indicator 16.1.2.
SDG indicator 16.1.1
The number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 people, broken down by sex and age. It is the official measure for SDG target 16.1, which aims to significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.
Context and mechanism
Where countries record it, UNODC classifies killings by situational context (such as organized crime, intimate partner or family, or other interpersonal conflict) and by mechanism (such as firearms or sharp objects). Shares are calculated only for cases where this information is known.
Regional and global estimates
Many countries, especially in Africa and Asia, lack recent or complete data. UNODC fills these gaps with statistical estimates to produce regional and global figures, so these totals carry uncertainty, particularly for Africa.
What works
Police, prosecutors, social services and community members jointly identify the small groups or individuals most involved in serious violence, tell them directly that violence will bring swift consequences, and offer support such as jobs and services. A Campbell systematic review of 24 evaluations found an overall moderate reduction in crime, with the largest effects for strategies aimed at gangs and groups; the first Boston programme was followed by a 63% fall in youth homicides.
Limits
None of the 24 evaluations was a randomized trial, and effects were smaller in the more rigorous studies. The evidence comes mostly from US cities, and the approach depends on sustained cooperation between agencies and communities.
What works
Trusted community members act as violence interrupters and outreach workers: they mediate disputes before they turn lethal, build long-term relationships with people at highest risk and work to change local norms around violence. A 2025 systematic review of 13 studies covering 27 sites in the United States, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago found that 57 of 83 findings showed fewer shootings or killings, and 27 were statistically significant.
Limits
Results vary by city and by how well the model is implemented; some sites saw no effect or increases, which the review links to funding constraints and weak local infrastructure. The review's authors work for the organisation that developed the model.
What works
WHO lists reducing concentrated poverty and upgrading urban environments among evidence-based ways to prevent youth violence. In Medellín, Colombia, neighbourhoods that received a cable-car transit link with new lighting, public spaces and services saw a decline in homicides 66% greater than similar neighbourhoods between 2003 and 2008.
Limits
Such studies are natural experiments: they cannot rule out other causes, and they do not show which part of a large public works package made the difference. Infrastructure is costly and takes years to build.
What works
WHO recommends restrictive firearm licensing and reducing access to alcohol as part of violence prevention, and UNODC names alcohol restriction and strict gun laws among system-wide measures. Firearms are the most common means of homicide, so limiting their availability targets a direct cause of lethality.
Limits
Rules, enforcement and political support vary widely between countries, and licensing addresses legal ownership, not firearms already circulating outside it.
What works
WHO lists parenting support, preschool programmes, whole-school approaches, life-skills and social development programmes, and therapeutic approaches for young people at high risk as effective ways to prevent youth violence before it starts.
Limits
Effects on homicide appear only years later and are hard to measure directly, so these programmes compete poorly for budgets against responses with visible short-term results.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Community violence interruption, developed in US cities, has been evaluated with comparison areas in Cali and Port of Spain, and further sites without comparison areas exist elsewhere. Whether results hold in places with strong organized crime or weaker public services is still being tested.
UNODC combines national data with statistical models to estimate homicide where records are missing, and the SDG framework now reports victims by sex and by relationship to the perpetrator. Data remain especially limited in Africa and Asia, so these estimates still carry wide uncertainty.
UNODC's 2023 study modelled future homicide under different scenarios and identified Africa as the region most at risk in coming decades, because of a growing young population, slower progress on inequality and climate shocks. Such projections are exploratory and depend heavily on their assumptions.
Knowledge gap
Data remain limited, especially in Africa and Asia, and trends for Africa are the most uncertain because few countries have long time series. Without reliable local data, it is hard to target prevention or judge whether it works.
Knowledge gap
The 24 focused deterrence evaluations in the Campbell review included no randomized trials, and effects shrank in more rigorous designs. Most evaluated programmes come from US cities, while the highest rates are in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa.
Implementation gap
Community programmes depend on trained staff, trust and stable funding. In the Cure Violence review, results were weakest where programmes faced funding constraints, shared offices and staff, and limited community infrastructure.
Coordination gap
Firearms are used in about three-quarters of homicides in the Americas, and organized crime or gangs account for about half of homicides there. Addressing these drivers requires action on illicit firearms and criminal markets that local prevention programmes cannot achieve alone.
Coordination gap
Effective approaches draw on policing, health, schools, social services, alcohol and firearm regulation and urban planning at the same time. These sit with different ministries and city departments, and few countries have one body responsible for reducing violent deaths.
Implementation gap
Almost 60% of women killed in 2024 were killed by a partner or family member. Prevention aimed at street and gang violence does not reach these deaths, which require early risk assessment and protection for people experiencing domestic violence.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Which changes in policy, demography, policing, health care or the economy explain the decline, and why did it not occur, or reverse, in some places?
Can focused deterrence, violence interruption and urban upgrading reduce killings where criminal groups control territory and markets, without displacing violence or increasing other harms?
Most evaluations come from a handful of cities. Which elements of a programme must stay fixed and which must be adapted when it moves to cities in Latin America, the Caribbean or Africa with different institutions and resources?
How can death registration, health records, surveys and police data be combined to produce reliable local figures in countries with incomplete statistics, and how much uncertainty is acceptable for policy?
If you give time or money, look for community organisations working on youth mentoring, mediation or violence interruption that publish what they do and how they measure results, and favour multi-year commitments over one-off gifts.
Find out whether your local government has a violence prevention plan that brings together police, health, schools and urban planning, and whether it uses approaches with published evaluations.
If there are firearms in your household, keep them locked and unloaded and stored separately from ammunition, in line with your country's rules. Limiting access reduces the chance that a conflict or crisis ends in a death.
When discussing violent crime, avoid labelling whole neighbourhoods or groups as dangerous. Rates change with conditions and policy, and stigma can make it harder for residents to find work, services and investment.
Ideas visitors sent in for this challenge, read by the DO GOOD team and pinned with permission. The colour shows the kind of contribution.
Loading the board…
What happens next
The DO GOOD team reads every idea and sorts it by colour: solution, research question, existing project, evidence or local action.
If you agree to publication, it can be pinned to this board. Contact details are never shown.
Pinned ideas are not reviewed by scientists and are not endorsed by DO GOOD.
This page is a research overview. DO GOOD does not run a dedicated programme on this challenge, and donations are not earmarked for it. You can join our volunteer work and outreach.
United Nations Statistics Division (data from UNODC), published 2026
Official UN progress report on SDG 16, indicator 16.1.1: global homicide rate of 5.1 per 100,000 in 2024 versus 5.9 in 2015, projection of 4.5 by 2030, regional rates, the two-thirds concentration in two regions, victims by sex and intimate partner or family homicide.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), published 2023
Full text of UNODC's most recent global homicide study (December 2023, latest edition as of October 2026; copy of the official PDF hosted by InSight Crime): 458,000 victims in 2021, 52 per hour, 440,000 average for 2019–2021, comparison with conflict deaths, firearm shares, organized crime shares, data gaps and projections.
World Health Organization, published 2026
WHO fact sheet updated 8 May 2026: about 193,000 homicides among people aged 15–29 each year (40% of the total) and the evidence-based prevention measures WHO recommends.
Campbell Systematic Reviews (Braga, Weisburd and Turchan), published 2019
Campbell Collaboration systematic review and meta-analysis of 24 quasi-experimental evaluations of focused deterrence, with effects by strategy type and study quality.
INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing (Ransford, Williams and Slutkin), published 2025
PRISMA systematic review of 13 studies covering 27 violence interruption sites in the United States, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago; authors are affiliated with Cure Violence Global.
American Journal of Epidemiology (Cerdá et al.), published 2012
Natural experiment comparing 25 neighbourhoods that received transit and urban upgrades with 23 comparison neighbourhoods between 2003 and 2008 (DOI 10.1093/aje/kwr428).
DO GOOD International (2026). Reducing Violent Deaths. Global Challenges. Updated October 15, 2026. https://www.dogood.world/challenges/homicide
For figures, please cite the original sources listed above.