US violent crime rate plummets by fastest rate in nearly 90 years, FBI says

Violent crime fell across the United States in 2025 at rates not seen in close to a century, findings from the FBI showed.

Murder and non-negligent manslaughter plummeted by more than 18% nationwide last year, while aggravated assault dropped by more over 7%, according to a preliminary report on national 2025 crime rates.

Violent crime on the whole dIpped by about 9.3% last year, the data show.

Violent crime dropped across the country at rates not seen for nearly 100 years, according to FBI Director Kash Patel. Getty Images

“The 2025 crime data in this report shows the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder since 1937 – as well as huge decreases across the board in terms of aggravated assault, rape, and robbery,”  FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.

“Over the last 14 months, we made major transformations at the FBI, and these results show those changes are working.”

Rape declined by nearly 8%, while robbery went down by about 18.5%, the FBI reported.

Property crime also decreased, dipping by about 12.4% between 2024 and 2025.

The findings come from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which collected data from over 17,000 law enforcement agencies.

Those agencies covered nearly all of the policing in the country, about 96%.

The number of overall incidents remains alarming, however, even though many crimes are trending downward.

FBI Director Kash Patel said he was committed to a “back the blue” approach to law enforcement across the country. David Buchan for NY Post

There were roughly 1.1 million less violent crimes committed in 2025 compared to 2024, and an even sharper year-over-year decrease of about 5.2 million less property crimes, according to the data.

But that amounted to a violent crime happening every 28 seconds — a rape murder every 37 seconds, and a rape ever 4 seconds.

Property crimes happened every 6 seconds — with a burglary every 47 seconds and a motor vehicle theft every 46.

More than 400,000 violent crimes — about 47% — were cleared with arrests, and about 868,000 — 17% — of property crimes.

The personal cost to law enforcement was also high — with about 53 police officers being killed on duty last year.

And more than 90,000 were assaulted in the line of duty. Another 28 died accidentally while on the job.

The FBI’s full 2025 crime report is expected to be released in the coming months.