Where does the USA rank in the world's murder rate per capita?

An apples to apples comparison is a great idea. We are significantly higher than our peers.

Gun murder per capita among developed/high income nations:

United States: ~4.4 per 100,000 residents

Canada: ~0.7 per 100,000 residents

Italy: ~0.2 per 100,000 residents

Australia: ~0.1 per 100,000 residents

Spain: ~0.1 per 100,000 residents

Iceland: 0.0 per 100,000 residents

Japan / Singapore: <0.05 per 100,000 residents

If guns were lovely and safe and cuddly, there wouldn't be this discussion.

Fact is, they're designed to be remote, accurate killing devices...And just about any numpty in the US can have one to play with.

Plenty of people though, so what does it matter if a few cop a bullet...A temporary outburst of media sensationalism and then on to the next shoot up.

Such is US culture.

"Safer" by what parameters? Actually, it's easy to find countries with a lower death rate by intentional gunfire than the USA, considering we rate at 50-60 per 100k annually. Note, however, that you offer no specific parameters by which to make the claim. Note, for example, that Skeptical's graph merely relates to "gun deaths," which broad factor that includes accidental deaths, such as someone not using caution in cleaning their own gun. My figures relate only to intentional death by another, i.e., murder.

Your summary numbers per country above the graph don't seem to equate with the graph numbers. Further, your data is 26 years old. Nothing more recent? Mine is data from 2025.

USA culture is not a singular entity. Not in the melting pot we are with varied elevations, climates, population density, ancestry, etc. My particular example, and there are many like me, is at an elevation of 7,500 feet in a forest. That's a little different from Queens, NYC, Detroit, L.A., etc, isn't it?

I'm not against gun ownership. In fact, the only kind of government that is opposed to gun ownership is the socialist, obviously because dictatorships don't want people to revolt against them.

However, I think there should be minimal requirements to have guns. I mean, how the fck a gun store can sell guns to a schooler? That's ridiculous.

Besides, if you have a minimal control on gun ownership, the US government can fight against the gun smuggling into Mexico for example and can reduce mass shootings in schools and malls.

See above

The United States has a significantly higher murder rate than any other high-income, developed nation. The U.S. homicide rate generally hovers between 5 and 7.8 per 100,000 residents, which is roughly 7.5 times higher than the combined average of peer developed countries, largely driven by high rates of firearm violence. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Homicide Rate Disparities

• The U.S. Rate: The American homicide rate typically ranges from 5.0 to 7.8 per 100,000 people depending on the year.

• Peer Nation Rates: Most wealthy Western European nations, Canada, Japan, and Australia report homicide rates under 1.0 to 2.0 per 100,000 people.

• The Multiplier Effect: Studies published in resources like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) show that the overall U.S. homicide rate is roughly 7 to 7.5 times higher than peer high-income countries. [2, 7]

Role of Firearms

• Firearm Disparity: The vast difference in overall murder numbers is driven by gun violence. U.S. firearm homicide rates are estimated to be over 20 times higher than in other wealthy nations.

• Ownership Rates: Public health data notes that the U.S. has the highest civilian gun ownership per capita in the developed world, and states with higher rates of gun ownership experience disproportionately higher firearm homicide rates. [2, 9]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1ow5kai/how_other_countries_homicide_rates_compare_to_the/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30817955/

[3] https://www.niussp.org/health-and-mortality/americas-high-homicide-rate/

[4] https://repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1147&context=nursing_fac

[5] https://www.facebook.com/MyEyewitnessNews/posts/homicide-levels-trending-lowest-in-more-than-a-century-research/1503025471861394/

[6] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pnNt63E6Wvc

[7] https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(15)01030-X/pdf

[8] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743519300659

[9] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hlLO6pc0hTk

You must not understand human psychology. Dont you understand that the ability to simply press a button, and someone dies, drastically increases the risk that more people will die, especially during heated confrontations, especially when these buttons are as widespread as they are?

The numbers match - the red bars are homicide. Linate has posted the same comparison with more current data. It should be no surprise that the numbers haven't gotten better...

Well yes, US culture is dictated by the mindset of all it's residents and if that results in a heavily armed populace then that is an all inclusive culture...Doesn't matter where you live.

And where you live certainly doesn't reduce the lethality of the weapon...Just says that you feeler safer in your country 7500 feet up a mountain and that there are places in your country where you wouldn't feel safe.

Culture indeed.

You can tell this is a gun problem, not just a bad person problem as the gun lobby says, also by comparing non-gun homicides of similar countries as the USA, and then adding guns to the mix: non-gun homicides are slightly on the higher side but within normal range, while gun homicides go wildly higher. If this was a bad person problem at its core, there would be a wildly higher amount of non-gun homicides as well, but that's not the case. Included is an article describing this phenomenon and a link with a picture.

https://i.imgur.com/skcT8qr.png

https://www.reddit.com/r/gunpolitics/comments/71n1u2/gunnongun_homicide_rates_in_oecd_countries_for/

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/canada-gun-control-debate/566102/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_term=2018-07-28T09%3A00%3A12

As for Friedman’s claim that keeping a gun out of someone’s hands won’t disincline them to commit murder, Cukier said, “The evidence doesn’t support that. Look at the numbers.” She went on to analyze homicide statistics from 2016: “If you look at the rate of murders not caused by guns and you compare Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, what you see is that it’s roughly the same in all four countries, although the U.S. rate is slightly higher,” Cukier said. In other words, in a scenario without guns, the four populations exhibit roughly similar rates of homicidal behavior.

That changes when you look at the rate of murders that were caused by guns. “As soon as you add guns into the mix, you see that the U.S. has six times the rate of gun murders as Canada has. And Canada has 15 times the rate of gun murders as the U.K., and four times the rate of Australia. It’s very clear that the difference in the murder rates between those countries is a function of the availability of firearms, period.”

Yes, the red bars are homicide, the blue, suicide. That's clear. But the numbers do not match. Italy, for example, your upper numbers list indicates the death rate there as 0.2:100,000, but the graph, by measurement, is 0.19 ÷ 0.47 = 0.4, not 0.2. There are several examples of your inaccurate conversion, or the source, on your upper list.

Doesn't matter where you live.

The hell it doesn't! Where I live, the population density is 23 per square mile. In New Orleans, the top murder rate in the country, it is 2,300 per 100,000, with a comparative murder rate [all weapons, combined] 2.2 per 100,000 in my region, and 46 per 100,000 in New Orleans.

By education level [another key element of variable murder rate [all weapons, combined], in my region, 59.8% have a college degree, or higher [including me]. In New Orleans, college degree or higher is 42.4%.

Both factors weigh heavily on our civil consideration for one another.

fauxlaw wrote:

Yes, the red bars are homicide, the blue, suicide. That's clear. But the numbers do not match. Italy, for example, your upper numbers list indicates the death rate there as 0.2:100,000, but the graph, by measurement, is 0.19 ÷ 0.47 = 0.4, not 0.2. There are several examples of your inaccurate conversion, or the source, on your upper list.

Are you busting out the micrometer and measuring? There are no graduated measurements between 0 and 1. Regardless, even if the graph were wrong it doesnt change the comparison. This is a distraction.

I think a more fair comparison might be overall murder rate, since the gun ownership argument is that even with gun control, people would just switch to other methods for murder. Now, even then, the US still ranks above most similar countries for murder rate, and I agree with your overall position I think, but I do think that's a fairer way to make the comparison.

I accept this as a valid criticism. A better comparison is murder rate.

"The United States had, by far, the highest homicide rate of the G7 countries between 2000 and 2023. In 2023, it reached 5.76 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, a decrease from 6.78 in 2021. By comparison, Canada, the G7 nation with the second-highest homicide rate, had 1.98 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023. Out of each G7 nation, Japan had the lowest rate with 0.23 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants."

Are you busting out the micrometer and measuring?

Could be; it's part of what I did for 25 years. Measurement, analysis, and improvement was my professional career, but, as it happens, using iMac, I have the advantage over being broke on the pane of Windows. Apple invented wysiwyg - "what you see is what you get." The reason why many people in graphic arts who use computers prefer the use of Mac over Windows [cough, cough] because what is projected on screeen is exacting in size. Something Windows could not just copy to make themselves appear impressive, but still used dos as an operating system for far too long [2001]. I abandoned Windows in early 83, mostly for that reason.

Yes, but murder rate with an undefined weapon only confuses the pot since even a practical, allegedly harmless tool like a spoon can be a murder weapon. So can a thumb. As I originally criticized. Neither is likely eligible for a ban.

And, I'm not sure if you're ignoring a per capita comparison, or not, but per capita removes the difficulty in honest calculation since we happen to be 3rd in the world in population, and one of the other two engages in unofficial murder by official disappearance of people they find contrary to kneeling to the system.

I'm not sure if you're ignoring a per capita comparison

I'm not, rate means per capita.

Of course, you're right. I forgot that. Thanks, I've been retired too long

Less likely to kill someone with a spoon from a distance of 50 feet, than with a gun at the same distance.

Similarly you cannot punch or stab someone from a distance of 50 feet.

I even bothered to check, and there is no record of murder by spoon in the US...But lots of murders by gun though.

And for sure, US in name only. (Headed by a whacko who only represents 50% of the people anyway)..Such is another aspect of US culture.

Well, 48.3% (to be precise) at the last count.

https://www.ranker.com/list/kitchen-utensil-murder-weapons/jacob-shelton

Less likely to kill someone with a spoon from a distance of 50 feet, than with a gun at the same distance.

Criminology and law enforcement data indicate that the vast majority of fatal gun-related encounters occur at very close range—typically between 3 to 10 feet.

https://leb.fbi.gov/spotlights/officer-survival-spotlight-what-is-a-safe-distance

And, isn't it convenient to accuse Trump of being a whacko, just like in the first term accused of lying, but no examples or data given, as  I have offered. Hell, everybody lies. EVERYBODY. So, what?

And what does law enforcement data indicate about fatal spoon encounters typically between 3 to10 feet?

On one hand, not a bloody thing. It's called satyr.

However, in prisons, there is evidence that inmates will grind down a spoon handle [metal or plastic] to a point, and use it viciously against another inmate with whom the aggressor has an issue. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7032408_Inmate-made_weapons_in_prison_facilities_Assessing_the_injury_risk