FBI Reports Largest Annual Decline in Violent Crime Rate Since National Estimates Began

CLARKSBURG, West Virginia — August 14, 2026 — The United States recorded its largest year-to-year decline in the estimated violent crime rate since the FBI began producing national estimates in 1936, according to the agency’s complete 2025 Reported Crimes in the Nation statistics.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program collected information on more than 13 million criminal offenses submitted by participating state, county, city, tribal, university and college law enforcement agencies.

An estimated 1,119,768 violent crime offenses occurred nationwide in 2025, producing an estimated rate of 327.6 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The 2024 rate was 362.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants.

The estimated number of violent crimes declined 9.3% between 2024 and 2025, while the estimated violent crime rate decreased 9.7%. The difference reflects the distinction between the total number of estimated offenses and the number calculated relative to the national population.

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses decreased an estimated 18.1%. Robbery declined 18.5%, rape decreased 7.6% and aggravated assault fell 7.2%.

The estimated murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate declined 18.5%, marking the largest annual decrease in that rate since national estimates began. The 2025 murder rate of 4.1 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants matched the rates recorded in 1955 and 1956, tying them for the lowest national murder rate in the FBI’s historical estimates.

The estimated 2025 robbery rate was 49.4 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest recorded during the 20-year period beginning in 2006. It was less than one-third of the 2006 rate of 150.1 robberies per 100,000 inhabitants.

The estimated rape rate declined to 36.1 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, its lowest level since 2012. The FBI adopted a revised definition of rape for its UCR collection in 2013, which must be considered when comparing rates across the change in reporting standards.

The estimated aggravated assault rate declined from 257.6 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 238.0 in 2025. That rate remained above the annual estimates recorded from 2013 through 2015.

Property crime also decreased substantially. The FBI estimated that 5,245,768 property crimes occurred in 2025, producing a rate of 1,534.8 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The estimated 2024 property crime rate was 1,761.1.

The estimated number of property crime offenses declined 12.4%. Burglary decreased 15.8%, larceny-theft declined 9.8% and motor vehicle theft fell 22.7%.

Burglary and larceny-theft reached their lowest estimated rates of the past 20 years. The 2025 motor vehicle theft rate was also the lowest recorded during that period and was 38.8% below the 2023 rate, which had been the highest since 2007.

Law enforcement agencies cleared 47.4% of reported violent crimes through arrest or exceptional means in 2025. Agencies cleared 17.4% of reported property crimes through the same methods.

The FBI estimated that law enforcement made 413,991 arrests for violent crime offenses and 868,330 arrests for property crime offenses during the year.

Arrest trends calculated from 13,286 agencies that submitted complete data for both 2024 and 2025 showed a 5.0% decline in juvenile violent crime arrests and a 12.2% decline in juvenile property crime arrests. Adult violent crime arrests decreased 1.7%, while adult property crime arrests fell 3.8%.

Every population group examined in the comparable agency data recorded a decline in overall violent crime. City agencies serving populations between 500,000 and 999,999 reported the largest decrease at 15.3%.

That population group also recorded the largest declines in murder at 27.4%, rape at 17.8%, robbery at 22.8% and aggravated assault at 12.6%. City agencies serving populations of one million or more reported declines in every violent crime category except rape, which increased 1.2%.

Overall property crime decreased across every population group. Motor vehicle theft declined in every group, ranging from 9.6% among cities with at least one million inhabitants to 29.4% among cities serving between 500,000 and 999,999 people.

The FBI received 2025 crime data from 17,075 law enforcement agencies, representing 87.3% of agencies enrolled in the UCR Program and covering approximately 328.9 million people, or 96.2% of the national population.

Every city law enforcement agency serving a population of one million or more submitted a full 12 months of data. A total of 15,099 agencies reported through the National Incident-Based Reporting System, an increase of 498 agencies from 2024. NIBRS submissions covered 89.5% of the population.

NIBRS allows participating agencies to report as many as 10 offenses within one incident and provides details concerning victims, known offenders, weapons, injuries, property and the time and location of an offense. The older Summary Reporting System generally counts only the most serious offense occurring within an incident.

Reported hate crime also declined. Agencies submitted information concerning 10,881 hate crime incidents, 13,026 related offenses, 13,438 victims and 9,509 known offenders in 2025.

Those reports involved bias connected to race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender and gender identity. A total of 16,791 agencies participated in the Hate Crime Data Collection, covering 95.3% of the population.

Because participating agencies do not always submit a complete year of hate crime data, the FBI created a separate comparison using agencies that reported at least six common months during both 2024 and 2025. That dataset showed a 7.0% decrease in reported hate crime incidents, from 11,404 in 2024 to 10,606 in 2025.

The report documented a different trend involving assaults on law enforcement officers. Agencies reported that 90,178 officers were assaulted in the line of duty during 2025, the highest total recorded during the 10-year period covered by the report.

Fifty-three officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty, including 43 whose deaths involved firearms. Twenty-eight officers were accidentally killed while on duty, with most of those deaths connected to motor vehicle incidents.

The UCR summary also recorded 4,062 reported human trafficking offenses. Commercial sex acts accounted for 3,334 offenses, or 82.1%, while 728 offenses, or 17.9%, involved involuntary servitude.

Law enforcement agencies reported 905,038 fraud offenses involving 983,088 victims. Drug-seizure data showed that marijuana was seized in connection with 408,688 drug or narcotic violation incidents, amphetamines or methamphetamines in 331,868 incidents and forms of cocaine other than crack in 87,396 incidents.

FBI Director Kash Patel said preliminary data for the first six months of 2026 indicate additional declines when compared with the same period in 2025. The preliminary figures show violent crime decreasing 10.6%, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter falling 23.0%, rape declining 18.6%, robbery dropping 19.6% and aggravated assault decreasing 7.2%.

Those 2026 figures remain preliminary and may change as agencies complete their submissions and the FBI conducts its national estimation process.

The 2025 publication includes Crime in the United States, National Incident-Based Reporting System data, Hate Crime Statistics, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted tables and the UCR Summary of Reported Crimes in the Nation.

The results measure offenses reported to or known by participating law enforcement agencies. They do not include every offense experienced by individuals or households, since some crimes are never reported to authorities.

National estimates are used to account for agencies that did not submit complete information. Reported figures, estimated figures and comparable-agency trends are separate measurements and should not be treated as interchangeable.

The FBI also cautioned that its statistics may not be directly comparable to figures published by organizations using different definitions, reporting standards or research methods. The combined data establish a broad national decline during 2025 while preserving the distinctions necessary to interpret individual offenses, jurisdictions and reporting systems accurately.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Uniform Crime Reporting Program — UCR Summary of Reported Crimes in the Nation, 2025, released August 2026. (Free Download)

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