The US murder rate plummetedFigures released by the FBI suggest that the US murder rate saw its sharpest ever fall in 2024, dropping by 14.9% – eclipsing even 2023’s substantial 10% decline. Overall, violent crime was down by 4.4%, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s, according to Jeff Asher, who crunches crime data for the Real-Time Crime Index. Property crime, meanwhile, saw the largest year-on-year decline on record. “America’s crime trends in 2024 were remarkably positive with an enormous decline in murder, a continued small but steady decline in violent crime, and a sizable decline in motor vehicle theft,” said Asher, who reckons that 2025 is on-track to be safer still. “The odds that 2025 will have the lowest murder rate ever recorded have gone from ‘plausible’ to ‘more likely than not’.”Image: Samuel Girven