Homicide Rates:
Total Rate per 100K, including murder, negligent homicide, and justifiable self-defense:
From the Ohio Department of Public Safety
2016: 8.99
2017: 9.75
2018: 8.52
2019: 8.44
2020: 10.47
2021: 10.95
2022: 8.83
2023: 8.49 (Low compared to CDC number)
Ohio Assault Homicide Death Rate per 100K, from the CDC:
2018: 6.5
2019: 6.2
2020: 8.6
2021: 8.7
2022: 7.9
2023: 7.4
Both of these data sets shows a spike in people dying in 2020 and 2021. Further data from the state of Ohio, shows crime was down during the Covid-19 lockdown in April and May, but spiked wildly in July with the nationwide BLM riots. July of 2020 had the highest amount of violent crime of any month from 2016-2023. Right before that, violent crime was down, and non-violent crime was at it’s lowest rate of any time from 2016-2023.
Murder & Non-negligent Homicide Rates:
These numbers come from the DOJ and are usually incomplete. The true totals are higher.
Ohio:
2019: 538 (11,700K 4.6 per 100K)
2020: 820 (11,690K, 7.0 per 100K) – Highest rate since 1991
2021: 881 (11,780K, 7.5 per 100K) – High rate since 1980
2022: 739 (11,780K, 6.3 per 100K)
2023: 700 (11,820K, 5.9 per 100K)
Black percentage of known suspects:
2019: 64.8%
2020: 64.7%
2021: 72.7%
2022: 67.9%
2023: 72.6%
While Ohio had a homicide rate of 8.9 in 1974, many municipalities still used a much broader definition to classify a homicide as an official murder. For example, if a drunk driver kills someone, it would have been part of the official murder rate at one time, but now it is classified as a “negligent homicide.”
Columbus, and Toledo had their highest homicides rates in history in 2021
Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Akron had their highest homicide rates in history in 2020.
Note that highest rate, means at least since 1960.
Columbus, OH:
1991: 139 (641K, 21.7 per 100K) former record for highest homicide rate
2018: 103 (891K, 11.6 per 100K)
2019: 106 (900K, 11.8 per 100K)
2020: 175, (906K, 19.3 per 100K)
2021 202, (907K, 22.3 per 100K) new record for highest homicide rate
2022: 140 (908K, 15.4 per 100K)
2023: 149, (921K, 16.0 per 100K)
2024: 124 (933K, 13.3 per 100K)
Toledo, Ohio:
1980: 60 (355K, 16.9 per 100K) former record for highest rate
2007: 13 (317K, 4.1 per 100K) lowest rate since early 60s
2019: 35 (273K, 12.8 per 100K)
2020: 61 (271K, 22.5 per 100K)
2021: 70 (269K, 26.0 per 100K) new record for highest number and highest rate
2022: 65 (270K, 24.1 per 100K)
2023: 45 (266K, 16.9 per 100K)
2024: 37 (266K, 13.9 per 100K)
Cincinnati, OH:
1971: 81 (453K, 17.8 per 100K) former record for highest rate
1987: 66 (372K, 17.7 per 100K) – serial killer Donald Harvey killed 24 of these
1995: 50 (348K, 14.4 per 100K) worst spike in the 90s
1998: 28 (336K, 8.3 per 100K) beginning of three years of lower homicide rates
2001: 61 (327K, 18.7 per 100K) homicides explode alongside Timothy Thomas race riots, new record for highest rate
2002: 70 (323K, 21.7 per 100K)
2019: 73 (304K, 24.0 per 100K)
2020: 94 (306K, 30.7 per 100K) – New record for the highest rate
2021: 94 (307K, 30.6 per 100K) – Second highest homicide rate
2022: 78 (312K, 25.0 per 100K)
2023: 71 (313K, 22.7 per 100K)
2024: 72 (315K, 22.9 per 100K)
2025: Cincinnati is on tract to have about the same amount of homicides in 2025 as it did in 2023 & 2024.
Cincinnati homicides went way down from 1998 to 2000. They they exploded again after the Timothy Thomas race riots. Cincinnati is different than most similar cities because homicide rates have generally been higher in the 2000s and 2010s than they were in the 1990s.
Cleveland, OH:
Cleveland, Ohio set a new record for the highest homicide rate ever in 2020. This came down slightly in 2021, but homicides in the suburbs of Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Parma and Warrensville Heights surged in 2021.
Suburban Cuyahoga County had 71 homicides in 2021 versus 48 in 2020.
1982: 195 (582K, 33.5 per 100K) former all time highest rate
2019: 118 (383K, 30.8 per 100K)`
2020: 179 (372K, 48.1 per 100K) new record for highest rate
2021: 171 (368K, 46.5 per 100K)
2022: 168 (371K, 45.2 per 100K)
2023: 138 (364K, 37.9 per 100K)
2024: 105 (365K, 28.8 per 100K)
Note: Some media outlets are reporting even higher numbers for Cleveland in 2020.
Akron, Ohio:
1974: 48 ( 260K, 18.5 per 100K) former record for highest rate
2017: 42 (193K, 21.2 per 100K) new record for highest rate
2019: 33 (192K, 16.7 per 100K)
2020: 50 (191K, 26.2 per 100K) new record for homicide rate
2021: 42 (190K, 22.1 per 100K)
2022: 45 (189K, 23.9 per 100K)
2023: 26 (189K, 13.8 per 100K)
2024: 25 (190K, 13.2 per 100K)
