Colima is a Mexican city of roughly 330,000 people. In the data behind the Wikipedia ranking it recorded 601 homicides, which works out to 181.94 per 100,000 residents. Durán, in Ecuador, follows at 148.00. The rest of the list starts at 138.23.
Mexico has 16 of the 50 cities with the highest homicide rates, followed by Brazil with 11 and South Africa with 6. Colima, Mexico, has the highest rate at 181.94 homicides per 100,000 people.
Key Takeaways
Mexico has 16 cities on the list, Brazil 11, South Africa 6, Ecuador 4, the United States 4, Colombia 3 and Honduras 2. Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico have one each.
Six of the ten highest rates belong to Mexican cities. Three belong to Ecuador and one to South Africa.
Cape Town recorded the most homicides (3,231) but ranks 18th by rate.
Memphis is the highest US entry, at 48.00 per 100,000 and 28th overall.
Which cities have the highest homicide rates in the world?
Mexico and Ecuador own the top of the table. Colima, Durán, Ciudad Obregón and Zacatecas all exceed 130 per 100,000. Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa comes next at 102.82, the only other city above 100.
Big cities show up too, just lower down. Tijuana, with nearly 1.9 million residents, ranks 7th at 87.88. Guayaquil, with about 2.8 million, ranks 8th at 83.80.
The ten highest homicide rates among cities of at least 300,000 people
Rank
City
Country
Homicides
Population
Per 100,000
1
Colima
Mexico
601
330,329
181.94
2
Durán
Ecuador
453
306,045
148.00
3
Ciudad Obregón
Mexico
454
328,430
138.23
4
Zacatecas
Mexico
490
363,996
134.62
5
Nelson Mandela Bay
South Africa
1,247
1,212,836
102.82
6
Cajeme
Mexico
432
485,453
88.99
7
Tijuana
Mexico
1,638
1,863,973
87.88
8
Guayaquil
Ecuador
2,319
2,765,695
83.80
9
Uruapan
Mexico
282
360,338
78.26
10
Machala
Ecuador
239
308,461
77.50
Which countries have the most cities on the list?
Mexico accounts for 16 of the 49 entries, a third of the list. Brazil adds 11, so the two countries together hold 27, or 55 percent. Add the Caribbean and the rest of Latin America and the count reaches 39.
Ecuador has just four cities here, yet all four rank inside the top 12. South Africa’s six cities include the three largest homicide counts on the list. The United States has four, all in the lower half of the ranking.
Number of high-homicide cities by country
Country
Cities
Share of the 50
Highest rate in the country
Mexico
16
32.7%
Colima, 181.94
Brazil
11
22.4%
Feira de Santana, 74.65
South Africa
6
12.2%
Nelson Mandela Bay, 102.82
Ecuador
4
8.2%
Durán, 148.00
United States
4
8.2%
Memphis, 48.00
Colombia
3
6.1%
Cali, 42.09
Honduras
2
4.1%
San Pedro Sula, 36.03
Jamaica
1
2.0%
Kingston, 70.73
Haiti
1
2.0%
Port-au-Prince, 67.20
Puerto Rico
1
2.0%
San Juan, 37.06
How do the four US cities compare?
Memphis ranks 28th at 48.00, Baltimore 44th at 35.30, New Orleans 47th at 34.18 and Detroit 49th at 32.10. Memphis, the highest of the four, has a rate roughly a quarter of Colima’s.
Gun control is probably the last thing relevant to this map. Only two U.S. cities are in the top 20 despite the myriad local gun laws across the country. With something like 300 million guns in the hands of U.S. citizens, I’d say gun laws are doing a pretty good job – the big exception being the ability of white male Americans to legally acquire small armories that allow them to mow down their unarmed compatriots.
Moronic comment MOLON LABE do it yourself don’t send your jack booted government agents after people.
Racist comment while Blacks murder Blacks at an astounding rate and crime in gun control cities run by Black democrats is so strict no one can defend themselves and the Police have to shoot to kill.
Then there are the many iterations of MS-13 or what ever Latino gangs and drug cartels.
Don’t forget the Tongs.
Russian, Italian, Irish Mobs.
Then again your type sees crime and screams gun control at the top of their lungs, why not ban Home Depot rental trucks as well?
Fromhere
8 years ago
I thought 8 years of oblamer and the dems was supposed to cure all the problems instead of adding to it. I guess we needed an 8 year reign of terror by Hilabeast to save the world.
Thomas Swartz
8 years ago
Notice what all these cities have in common, large numbers of blacks or latinos.
Notice what all these guys have in common:
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Stephen Paddock
Adam Lanza
James Holmes
Dylann Roof
Devin Patrick Kelley
Hint: They are white men. There used to be some wiggle room around this point, but it has become clear that white men are dominating the mass shooting arena and are treating it almost like a video game, trying to outscore each other.
WHAT? The first US city was St. Louis and it came in at number 15.
Baltimore a gun control city comes in at 19.
Gun control is probably the last thing relevant to this map. Only two U.S. cities are in the top 20 despite the myriad local gun laws across the country. With something like 300 million guns in the hands of U.S. citizens, I’d say gun laws are doing a pretty good job – the big exception being the ability of white male Americans to legally acquire small armories that allow them to mow down their unarmed compatriots.
Moronic comment MOLON LABE do it yourself don’t send your jack booted government agents after people.
Racist comment while Blacks murder Blacks at an astounding rate and crime in gun control cities run by Black democrats is so strict no one can defend themselves and the Police have to shoot to kill.
Then there are the many iterations of MS-13 or what ever Latino gangs and drug cartels.
Don’t forget the Tongs.
Russian, Italian, Irish Mobs.
Then again your type sees crime and screams gun control at the top of their lungs, why not ban Home Depot rental trucks as well?
I thought 8 years of oblamer and the dems was supposed to cure all the problems instead of adding to it. I guess we needed an 8 year reign of terror by Hilabeast to save the world.
Notice what all these cities have in common, large numbers of blacks or latinos.
Notice what all these guys have in common:
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Stephen Paddock
Adam Lanza
James Holmes
Dylann Roof
Devin Patrick Kelley
Hint: They are white men. There used to be some wiggle room around this point, but it has become clear that white men are dominating the mass shooting arena and are treating it almost like a video game, trying to outscore each other.
Notice most of these white men had mental issues. Their numbers will not come close to the nearly 8,000 blacks killed by other black every year.