Violent crime rates across the United States saw a significant decline between 2024 and 2025, with murder rates dropping by over 18%. This marks the largest decrease in major crime categories in nearly a century, according to the FBI.
The data comes from the FBI’s “First Look: 2025 Crime Data,” a preliminary report that offers an early glimpse into annual crime trends. This report precedes the more detailed “Crime in the Nation” report, which will be released later this year.
In addition to the notable reduction in homicides, the report reveals that robberies have decreased by approximately 18.5%. Meanwhile, incidents of rape and aggravated assault have each fallen by 7%.
“The 2025 crime data in this report represents the most significant drop in violent crime and murder since 1937,” stated FBI Director Kash Patel. “We’ve also seen substantial declines across the board in aggravated assault, rape, and robbery.”
FBI Director Kash Patel expressed commendation for the reduction in violent crime, which was shared as part of the FBI’s preliminary crime trends release on Thursday.
“Over the last 14 months, we made major transformations at the FBI, and these results show those changes are working,” Patel said in a statement. “This FBI will continue to stack these wins for the American people under President Trump and always Back the Blue every step of the way.”
Property crime, which includes offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson, dropped by an estimated 12.4%, the FBI said. This year’s report used data shared by roughly 17,075 law enforcement agencies — 2.4% more agencies than last year — across the U.S., accounting for nearly 96% of U.S. residents, the FBI said.
The report found that 53 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2025, down from 64 in 2024. More than 90,000 were assaulted and 28 were accidentally killed, the FBI said.
Meanwhile, nearly 414,000 arrests were made for violent crimes and another 868,000 for property crimes. The FBI noted that a murder in the U.S. occurred every 37.3 minutes and a violent crime happened every 28.2 seconds.
Meanwhile, a quarterly report released by the Major Cities Chiefs Association said violent crime fell across large U.S. cities in the first months of 2026.
The FBI director said 2025 crime data in a report released Thursday shows the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder since 1937. (Getty Images)
Data collected from 67 responding U.S. police agencies found that homicides fell 17.7%, alongside a 20.4% drop for robberies from Jan. 1 through March 31. Some of the agencies include police departments in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Philadelphia.
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