The United States recorded its steepest year-on-year decline in violent crime in nearly nine decades in 2025, with the violent crime rate falling 9.7 per cent from the previous year, according to detailed data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Programme released by the White House. The overall number of violent crimes fell an estimated 9.3 per cent, marking the largest annual drop in the rate since national estimates began in 1936.

Key Crime Figures for 2025

The FBI estimated 1,119,768 violent crimes were committed across the country in 2025, translating to 327.6 offences per 100,000 people — down from 362.9 in 2024. The murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate dropped 18.5 per cent, also the steepest annual decline on FBI record, with the murder rate settling at 4.1 per 100,000 people — matching levels last seen in 1955 and 1956, making it the joint-lowest since national estimates began.

Robbery declined 18.5 per cent to an estimated 168,927 offences. Rape fell 7.6 per cent to 123,332 cases, while aggravated assault decreased 7.2 per cent to 813,424 offences. Aggravated assaults accounted for 72.6 per cent of all violent crimes reported to law enforcement.

Firearms and Property Crime

Firearms were used in 72.3 per cent of murders for which weapons data were available, in 29.1 per cent of robberies, and in 30.6 per cent of aggravated assaults. Property crime also declined sharply, falling an estimated 12.4 per cent to approximately 5.24 million recorded incidents. Motor vehicle theft led the drop at 22.7 per cent, followed by burglary at 15.8 per cent and larceny-theft at 9.8 per cent. Property crime is now down 33.6 per cent compared with its estimated level in 2016.

Hate Crime Incidents Also Fall

Reported hate crime incidents declined as well. A dataset used to calculate the national trend showed a 7 per cent fall, from 11,404 incidents in 2024 to 10,606 in 2025. The wider hate crime collection captured 10,881 criminal incidents and 13,026 related offences motivated by bias involving race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, or gender identity.

More than 17,000 law enforcement agencies participated in the 2025 crime data collection, covering 96.2 per cent of the US population. Every city agency serving at least one million people submitted a full year of data.

White House Credits Trump Administration

The White House attributed the decline to President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel, stating that the FBI had made nearly 54,000 violent crime arrests, including arrests of more than 31,000 violent criminals and gang members. The administration also cited preliminary figures for the first half of 2026 showing violent crime down a further 10.6 per cent from the same period in 2025. According to the preliminary data, murder fell 23 per cent, rape 18.6 per cent, and robbery 19.6 per cent in that period.

Critics and independent analysts are yet to weigh in on the methodology and attribution of the trend, and it remains to be seen whether the decline holds through the full year of 2026.