Crime rates across the United States fell dramatically in 2025, continuing a multi-year reversal from pandemic-era spikes. New analyses from the Council on Criminal Justice showed homicides decreased by 21 percent in 35 major cities compared to 2024, resulting in 922 fewer killings. This marked the largest single-year drop in the homicide rate since reliable records began in 1900, with national rates projected to hit a historic low of about 4.0 per 100,000 residents.

The declines extended beyond murders. In data from 40 large cities tracked by the Council on Criminal Justice, aggravated assaults fell 9 percent, gun assaults plunged 22 percent, robberies dropped 23 percent, and carjackings dropped 43 percent. Property crimes also tumbled, with motor vehicle thefts down 27 percent, residential burglaries 17 percent, and larcenies 11 percent. Overall, 11 of 13 tracked offenses declined, nine by double digits, pushing violent crime rates to or below pre-pandemic 2019 levels—homicides 25 percent lower than then.

Preliminary FBI data through November 2025 corroborated the trends, showing violent crime down 8.1 percent from December 2024, murders off 10 percent, rapes 18.2 percent, robberies 7.8 percent, and aggravated assaults 18.7 percent. The Major Cities Chiefs Association reported similar results across 67 departments: homicides down 19 percent, robberies down 20 percent, and aggravated assaults down nearly 10 percent.

These drops were widespread, spanning big cities and small towns, red states and blue ones, from New York to Denver and Chicago to Tampa. Homicides fell more than 50 percent in Orlando and Tampa, around 30 percent in Chicago and Baltimore, and about 40 percent in Denver, Omaha, and Washington. Since the 2021 peak, when murders surged amid COVID-19 disruptions, homicides have declined 44 percent nationwide.

Experts offered no single explanation for the plunge. Possible factors included shifts in criminal justice policies, local violence prevention programs, economic improvements, technology in policing, and lingering post-pandemic adjustments in behavior. Some credited sustained local leadership and strategic investments by mayors and police chiefs. The incoming Trump administration highlighted federal support to high-crime areas like Washington as a contributor.

Looking ahead, researchers cautioned that such steep declines may not persist. Some predicted a possible uptick in 2026, citing cuts to Justice Department grants for community safety programs earlier in the year. Monthly data updates from the FBI are expected to resume in May, providing fuller 2025 figures.