Violent crime fell at a record pace across the United States in 2025, according to newly released data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
The estimated number of violent offenses declined 9.3% between 2024 and 2025, representing the largest single-year reduction since the FBI began producing national estimates in 1936. When measured as a population-adjusted rate, the decline was even greater at 9.7%.
Every major violent-crime category recorded a substantial decrease.
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter fell an estimated 18.1%, while robbery dropped 18.5%. Rape declined 7.6%, and aggravated assault decreased 7.2%.
The estimated national murder rate reached 4.1 killings per 100,000 residents. That matches the rates recorded in 1955 and 1956, making it the lowest level reported during the FBI’s modern estimation period.
Property crime also fell sharply. The FBI calculated a 12.4% decline, including decreases of 22.7% in motor vehicle theft, 15.8% in burglary and 9.8% in larceny-theft.
The bureau estimated that approximately 1.12 million violent crimes and 5.25 million property crimes occurred nationwide during 2025.
More than 17,000 law enforcement agencies participated in the data collection, representing approximately 96.2% of the country’s population. Because some agencies did not provide complete information, the FBI used statistical estimates to construct national totals.
President Donald Trump’s administration credited its support for law enforcement and increased federal activity with accelerating the reduction.
The White House said the FBI made nearly 54,000 violent-crime arrests, including more than 31,000 arrests involving alleged violent offenders and gang members. It also reported that federal agents captured nine fugitives from the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
Administration figures further showed more than 5,000 arrests involving suspected child predators and human traffickers, along with the identification or recovery of more than 11,000 child victims.
Those enforcement totals reflect FBI activity across numerous investigations, however, and do not independently establish how much any single federal policy contributed to the national decline.
Crime had already begun falling from its pandemic-era peak before Trump returned to office in January 2025. Researchers have offered several possible explanations, including changes in policing, expanded violence-prevention programs, the dissipation of pandemic-related disruptions and the recovery of courts and public institutions.
Criminologists have generally cautioned that broad changes in crime are rarely attributable to one president, political party or law enforcement strategy—particularly when similar declines occur in communities governed by different parties and using different policies.
Nevertheless, preliminary information indicates that the improvement continued into 2026.
Early comparisons for the first half of the year showed violent crime falling another 10.6%, with murder down 23%, rape down 18.6% and robbery down 19.6% from the corresponding period in 2025. Those figures remain preliminary and may change as additional agencies submit or revise their reports.
The final 2025 statistics are still an unmistakably positive development. They indicate fewer killings, assaults, robberies and sexual offenses across communities of varying sizes, from major cities to rural areas.
The Trump administration is presenting the numbers as proof that its law-and-order agenda is working. Whatever combination of policies and social conditions produced the decline, the practical result is the same: hundreds of thousands fewer Americans became victims of serious crimes in 2025.
