State crime
Kentucky
Homicides per 100,000 from CDC NCHS death-certificate data · data as of May 14, 2026.
Homicide rate (TTM)
5.9per 100k
266 deaths
Year-over-year
-1.4%
2023 → 2024
vs. U.S. average
-0.1per 100k
U.S. rate 6.0 (2024)
Homicide rate since 2019
Per 100,000 population. Kentucky compared with the U.S. national rate over the same period.
Year-by-year
| Year | Rate /100k | Deaths | U.S. rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 5.6 | 250 | 5.8 |
| 2020 | 9.0 | 404 | 7.4 |
| 2021 | 9.1 | 408 | 7.8 |
| 2022 | 7.7 | 348 | 7.5 |
| 2023 | 7.0 | 316 | 6.8 |
| 2024 | 6.9 | 314 | 6.0 |
| TTM (January, 2025 to December, 2025) | 5.9 | 266 | — |
Methodology
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Mapping Injury, Overdose, and Violence dataset (fpsi-y8tj), pulled via the data.cdc.gov Socrata API. The underlying data is death-certificate records coded under ICD-10 X85-Y09 (assault).
Cells with fewer than 10 deaths in a given state-year are suppressed by CDC and render as "—". Counts are by state of occurrence, not state of residence.
The TTM (trailing 12 months) row covers January, 2025 to December, 2025 and is provisional. It will revise modestly as additional death certificates clear NCHS review.