Jackson, Mississippi, had 155 homicides in 2021. An almost unbelievable number since the population is only slightly less than 155k people! The estimated population for 2021 is 154,340.
South Africa is widely seen as the deadliest country with reliable data. Other sub-Saharan nations may be just as deadly, but they do not have any reliable data.
The annual homicide rate for South Africa has fluctuated around 30-35 per 100k for the past ten years.
In 2020, Venezuela was the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere, with homicides in the worst four cities ranging from 51-62 per 100k. At the height of civil conflict in Venezuela, Caracas had a homicide rate of 109 per 100k in 2017.
St . Louis scored a homicide rate of 86.9 per 100k, which made it the deadliest city in the entire Western Hemisphere that year. Jackson had a rate even 15% higher than that. The city probably set a new record for the highest homicide rate of any American city ever (with more than 100k people) in US history. The only cities that may have ever experienced a higher rate are tiny rural towns with an unusual one-year spike due to one person killing multiple people.
Jackson, MS, is about 80% Black after decades of White flight. In 2013, Chokwe Lumumba, born Edwin Finley Taliaferro, was elected Mayor. Lumumba was a long-time Black Separatist militant and a former leader of the “The Republic of New Afrika [RNA].” In 1971, Lumumba replaced Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, as second vice president of the RNA. The group advocated for creating a socialist Black ethnostate in the American deep south with Jackson, MS, as its capital.
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the son of Chokwe Lumumba, was elected Mayor of Jackson in 2017 as a self-described “progressive.” Bernie Sanders endorsed him.
Jackson, MS:
Year: # of homicides (population, homicide rate)
1995: 92 (191k, 48.2 homicides per 100k) former all-time record
2019: 83 homicides
2020: 128 (157k, 81.5 homicides per 100k)
2021: 155 (154k, 100 homicides per 100k)
St. Louis, MO:
1993: 267 (estimated population 382k, 69.9 homicides per 100k) former record for the highest rate
2019: 194
2020: 264 (298k, 88.6 per 100k) new record for the highest rate
2021: 226 (295K, 76.6 per 100k) new second-place record for the homicide rate
Despite a 17% decline in homicides, St. Louis still had one of the highest homicide rates in the world in 2021!
