Number of Homicides in Mexico on the Rise

The number of homicides has been climbing in Mexico, spurred by bloody feuds among drug cartels. The numbers reported for the year 2019 are larger than any other figures recorded since the start of one current statistic in 1997. 2019 is actually the third consecutive year the record for most homicides per year was broken in Mexico, as our graphic shows. The 2017, 2018 and 2019 figures were all higher than those at the height of the Mexican drug war in 2011, when upwards of 22,000 homicides were counted annually.

According to a new method of recording homicides debuted in 2014, the tally for 2019 stood at 34,582 victims. Following the older system of measuring homicides by investigations, 29,400 homicides took place in 2019. The homicide rate which stood at approximately 20 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011, was first surpassed in 2017, when the country's homicide rate was 21, and in 2018, when 23.6 per 100,000 Mexicans died by violent means. A figure for 2019 is not available.

Following the new system, Mexico's homicide rate actually remained steady between 2018 and 2019. While homicides grew from 33,700 to 34,500, the rate of homicides remained at 23.2 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.