Liberty Evidence Engine

Evidence · 2026-08-11

U.S. violent crime rate, 1985–2023

National violent crime rate per 100,000 residents — a public reference series for context. Not a causal claim about any single gun law.

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Data

year violent_crime_rate_per_100k
1985 556.6
1986 617.7
1987 609.7
1988 637.2
1989 663.1
1990 729.6
1991 758.2
1992 757.7
1993 747.1
1994 713.6
1995 684.5
1996 636.6
1997 611.0
1998 567.6
1999 523.0
2000 506.5
2001 504.5
2002 494.4
2003 475.8
2004 463.2
2005 469.0
2006 479.3
2007 471.8
2008 458.6
2009 431.9
2010 404.5
2011 387.1
2012 387.8
2013 369.1
2014 361.6
2015 373.7
2016 386.6
2017 383.8
2018 370.4
2019 366.7
2020 398.5
2021 387.0
2022 380.7
2023 363.8

Methods & limits

Question. How has the national violent crime rate moved over the last four decades?

  • Series is the national violent crime rate (per 100,000 population) as commonly published from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting historical estimates.
  • This page is a transparent reference table and chart for site plumbing — not a regression and not a policy causal estimate.
  • Values are rounded public figures for readability; always prefer primary FBI/BJS releases for formal citation.
  • NIBRS transition and coverage changes affect year-to-year interpretation in the 2020s; treat recent years with extra care.
Limitations. National aggregate only — no state/county controls, no shall-issue coding, no ownership or policing covariates. Do not read this chart as proof that any law caused the decline. Full Liberty Evidence regressions will ship as separate /evidence pages with explicit controls and downloads.

Sources.