Violent crime plunged across the U.S. in 2025, with newly released FBI statistics showing the largest single-year declines in both the violent crime rate and murder rate since the agency began producing national estimates nearly 90 years ago.
Overall violent crime dropped 9.3% compared with 2024, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report released Friday.
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter fell even more sharply, declining 18.1% year over year.
According to the FBI, both figures represent the largest annual decreases recorded since the agency introduced its data-based national estimates in 1936.
President Donald Trump celebrated the findings during remarks to law enforcement officers in Garden City, New York.
“We achieved the single largest reduction in violent crime in American history. It’s pretty amazing,” Trump said.
Trump described the newly released statistics as “the best numbers anybody’s ever seen on crime.”
The FBI estimated that 1,119,768 violent crimes occurred nationwide during 2025, including 14,085 murders.
FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted another historic figure in the report.
The national murder rate fell to 4.1 killings per 100,000 residents, tying the rates recorded in 1955 and 1956 for the lowest level since the FBI began producing estimates.
Patel also indicated that the downward trajectory has continued into the current year.
“Preliminary trends for 2026 are showing additional decreases in crime,” he wrote.
The latest numbers continue a multiyear decline following a spike in crime in 2022.
Violent crime declined 4.5% in 2024, while murder and nonnegligent manslaughter dropped 14.9% that year.
The decreases accelerated substantially in 2025.
Several individual categories of violent crime recorded significant improvements.
Robbery experienced one of the largest drops, falling 18.5% from 2024.
Reported rapes declined 7.6%, while aggravated assaults fell 7.5%.
Property crime also dropped significantly across the country.
The FBI estimated that property crimes declined by 12.4% overall during 2025.
Burglaries decreased 15.8%, while motor vehicle thefts plunged an estimated 22%.
The FBI’s findings draw from data submitted by more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Every American city with a population exceeding 1 million provided a full year of data for the analysis, according to the report.
While most of the major national crime indicators moved sharply downward, one statistic showed a significant increase.
Reported assaults against law enforcement officers climbed 13.8% during 2025.
The FBI recorded 90,178 officers assaulted in the line of duty, representing a 10-year high.
The increase stands in contrast to the substantial declines recorded across violent crime and property crime more broadly.
The new statistics are likely to become a major political talking point as the country approaches the November midterm elections.
Trump has repeatedly emphasized crime and public safety as central components of his administration’s domestic agenda, and he quickly claimed credit for the latest numbers.
The longer-term FBI data, however, show that the national decline began before 2025, with both violent crime and murder rates decreasing annually since their 2022 spike, per NBC News.
The 2025 figures nevertheless represent a dramatic acceleration of that trend.
With violent crime down 9.3%, murders down 18.1% and the national murder rate reaching a level not recorded since the 1950s, the FBI’s latest report shows 2025 produced historic improvements in several of the country’s most closely watched crime statistics.
