A new report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) finds that reported violent crime declined across every category in the United States compared with 2025. The organization highlighted the broad decline as the first across-the-board drop since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 67 U.S. agencies included in the MCCA report, 66 participated in the midyear survey. Their data showed a 17.2 percent drop in reported homicides, a 6.2 percent drop in reported rapes, a 16.6 percent drop in reported robberies, and a 5.7 percent drop in reported aggravated assaults.
Several major cities recorded particularly sharp declines in reported homicides. Washington, D.C., reported 46 homicides during the first half of 2026, down from 82 during the same period in 2025. Raleigh, North Carolina, reported four homicides, down from 11, while Miami, Florida, reported eight, down from 16. Overall, participating agencies reported 449 fewer homicides in the first half of 2026 than during the same period in 2025.
The Council on Criminal Justice earlier reported 18% decline in murders across the nation’s 30 largest cities during the first half of 2026.
The national numbers tell a remarkable story. Since national record keeping began in 1900, the previous record-low murder rate was about 4.5 per 100,000 people. The rate stood at about 5.0 per 100,000 in 2024, but fell to just under 4.0 in 2025. If these numbers from the MCCA and the Council on Criminal Justice reflect the national trend, the U.S. murder rate will fall to roughly 3.25 to 3.28 per 100,000 this year—the lowest rate ever recorded.
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