# daily average of murders in the U.S. per day **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741 "2011-01-24T04:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Shig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shig)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/1 "2011-01-24T04:07:06Z")
Perhaps I’m not great at searching the internet… but I’m looking to find an an actual average of murders commited in the U.S. per day based on somewhat recent statistics. Everything I seem to find is questionable and I am confident that the teeming millions can help. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/2 "2011-01-24T04:18:46Z")
The US Bureau of Justice Statistics is a good place to look this sort of thing up. [Here](http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/hmrttab.cfm) is a table of homicide rates per 100,000 people over the last few decades. The most recent numbers are: 2006: 6.2 2005: 6.1 2004: 5.9 2003: 6.1 2002: 6.1 2001: 7.1\* 2000: 6.1 Bonus points if you can guess what the footnote is on 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/3 "2011-01-24T04:33:22Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Bonus points if you can guess what the footnote is on 2001. 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/4 "2011-01-24T04:33:50Z")
According to Wiki there were 14,180 murders in the United States in 2008. Diving by 365 gives an average of 38.84 murders per day. Which sounds like a lot until you recall that there were over 304,000,000 people living here in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Shig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Shig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shig)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/5 "2011-01-24T04:58:36Z")
Thanks so much to you all for the quick responses. Thats why I love this place. (place meaning the site, not the country) =) ---
**Author:** ![automagic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@automagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/automagic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/6 "2011-01-24T08:32:59Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > According to Wiki there were 14,180 murders in the United States in 2008. Diving by 365 gives an average of 38.84 murders per day. > Which sounds like a lot until you recall that there were over 304,000,000 people living here in 2008. On the death certificate of a person who has been executed they mark homicide as cause of death since technically another person directly caused that persons death. Do they count those on the murder totals? If they did how does that affect “actual murder” rates? ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/7 "2011-01-24T09:39:12Z")
> [@automagic](#): > > On the death certificate of a person who has been executed they mark homicide as cause of death since technically another person directly caused that persons death. Homicide isn’t necessarily murder. I think these statistics are derived from police reports though, not by tallying up the causes of death on death certificates. According to [this site](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-united-states-2009) 52 prisoners were executed in 2009 so either way that would only be about 0.03% of the 15k+ murders reported that year. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/8 "2011-01-24T14:12:32Z")
The numbers listed rather surprise me; I would have guessed them to be about 50% higher. I’m pleasantly surprised, I want to make that clear lest I be accused of advocating increased rates. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/9 "2011-01-24T14:22:55Z")
I have heard that the number of suicides in the US is much higher each year than the number of murders. Anyone have the numbers handy? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/10 "2011-01-24T16:58:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I have heard that the number of suicides in the US is much higher each year than the number of murders. Anyone have the numbers handy? Yes. [From the CDC](http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html): 18,773 homicides in 2007 34,958 suicides in 2007 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daily-average-of-murders-in-the-u-s-per-day/568741/11 "2011-01-24T17:10:05Z")
^ Thanks!