US homicide deaths by race, 1999 to 2020
US homicide deaths by race stood at 4 in 2020, up 21.9% on the previous period.
The rate of deaths ruled homicide in the United States, per 100,000 population, compared across racial groups. The latest readings (2020): Black or African American at 29, American Indian or Alaska Native at 8.5, White at 3.9, Asian or Pacific Islander at 1.8.
How it is measured
Every point is built from death certificates: each US death is certified, assigned an underlying cause under the ICD-10 coding standard, and compiled in CDC WONDER. Rates divide deaths by group population, so groups of different sizes are directly comparable, and small counts are suppressed by CDC privacy rules rather than shown imprecisely. The modern coding standard begins in 1999, which is where this series starts, keeping every year internally comparable.
What the curve shows
Homicide mortality is counted from death certificates rather than police reports, which makes it the check on crime statistics: the two systems usually agree on direction. Rates, not counts, make the group comparison honest; the remaining gaps and their direction of travel are the substance of the chart.
What does per 100,000 mean?
How is the cause of death decided?
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