US Records Highest Increase in Homicide Rate in Modern History - Tasnim News Agency

(Tasnim) – The United States has just recorded its highest increase in rates of homicide in modern history, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Provisional data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, released early Wednesday, suggest the homicide rate for the United States rose 30% between 2019 and 2020. It is the highest increase recorded in modern history -- and confirms through public health data a rise in homicides that so far had been identified only through crime statistics.

The previous largest increase in the US homicide rate was a 20% rise recorded from 2000 to 2001 because of the September 11 terror attacks, according to NCHS.

"It is the largest increase in 100 years," Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at NCHS, said.

"The only larger increase since we've been recording these data occurred between 1904 and 1905, and that increase was most likely -- at least partly -- the result of better reporting," Anderson told CNN. "We had states being added to what we refer to as the death registration areas, so we were counting deaths in more areas over time. We didn't have all states reporting until 1933."