London’s homicide statistics compared to New York City’s.
First, I'm sorry if you've seen this already. I feel like I'm spamming. I'm not, but my previous versions weren't viewable correctly on mobile. I hope adding images will fix the problem.
Disclaimer/warning
This data pertains to the loss of life. I assure everyone there's no sneaky attempt to trivialise or gamify the nature of this crime. The data I've collected had come from many years. It goes to a senior criminologist but I want to share it with anyone who has an interest.
Please note that London and NYC have practically identical populations.
- The data here compares homicide in London and NYC over four years between 2020 and 2023.
- 2024’s total homicide counts are available but the data I’ve included isn’t.
- That information will probably become available in June or July this year.
- This data comes from the NYPD and the Met Police except for some London data, which comes from my own recording because the Met doesn’t provide that information in the same format. I’ve marked that data an asterisk.
Summary
- NYC’s total homicide rate was 3.8x greater
- NYC’s homicide rate by stabbing/cutting was 1.2x greater
- NYC’s homicide rate by gunshot was 25x greater
- NYC’s homicide rate by blunt object was 2.2x greater
- NYC’s homicide rate by hand and feet was 2.7x greater
- NYC’s male homicide rate was 4x greater
- NYC’s female homicide rate was 2.5x greater
- NYC saw twice as many babies and children killed
- NYC saw 1.9x as many teenagers killed
- NYC saw 4.6x as many people in their 20s killed
- NYC saw 6x as many people in their 30s killed
- NYC saw 4x as many people in their 40s killed
- NYC saw 3.9x as many people in their 50s killed
- NYC saw 3.3x as many people in their 60s killed
- NYC saw 2.2x as many people aged 70 and over killed
- NYC sees more lethal violence in every form across every age group with one exception.
- That exception is that more teens die by knife in London, although more teens die overall in NYC.
- The closest numbers by age group are teenagers.
- Had I chosen 2016-2019 instead, the numbers for all ages would’ve been closer still during a period when London’s homicide rate spiked while NYC’s yearly numbers were the lowest on record.
- The data isn’t here, but more people are killed by strangers in NYC.
- Homicide has steadily fallen for over 30 years in NYC and over 20 years in London with each city seeing sporadic short-term increases.
- The decline in NYC is stark compared to London.
- London’s rate peaked in 2003 with around 3 per 100k.
- NYC’s rate peaked in 1990 with around 33 per 100k.
- Since 2020, London’s yearly rate has been around 1 to 1.5 per 100k people, while NYC’s rate has been between 4 and 5.5 per 100k people.
- Homicides happen everywhere in both cities, but disproportionately cluster in a handful of neighbourhoods and areas.
- Both cities have large gaps in equality.
- There are no standardised criteria for poverty, so precise comparisons are difficult, but the rates of poverty and living conditions are similar.
- NYC has more ghettoisation than London, more gang activity, and more guns in circulation. It likely has a stretched mental health service and a greater number of drug abuse. I can’t make definitive statements for this, though, because it requires examining vast amounts of complex qualitative and quantitative data with an understanding of every possible nuance and permutation and knowing every detail of the differences in recording methodology.
DATA WARNINGS * Despite coming from their respective police departments, the data isn’t perfect. * Not many, but some deaths will have occurred years before these dates. I’ve only included these for continuity. They don’t affect the totals in any meaningful way. * Some deaths were deemed justifiable at conviction (e.g., deemed self-defence) in London’s data, but according to the NYPD’ supplementary data, none of the NYC deaths were. * I’ve used ‘male’ and ‘female’ according to police reports. It’s likely that a small number will have been trans. * There are ‘other’ causes of deaths, like asphyxiation and arson, but I’ve not included those because they’re relatively small. I have the data, though. * In some cases, more than one weapon was used. In the cases I couldn’t determine the primary cause of death, I added a value to each weapon used in the incident. If that’s not clear, put it this way: some people were stabbed and shot or beaten and stabbed. Sometimes in those incidents, it’s not possible to determine which specific injury was absolutely the cause of death. Again, this discrepancy is a relatively small number that doesn’t affect the total in any meaningful way.
What’s next?
I’m going to post the following next week:
- London’s worst afflicted boroughs every year since 2003
- London’s and NYC’s worst afflicted months since 2019
- Victims by ethnicity in London since 2003 and how it reflects London’s demographic residency
- Some data for NYC from the early 1990s
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