• RECORD: Mexico’s murder rate remained stuck at historic high levels in 2019 with the country experiencing 29 homicides per 100,000 people, according to a preliminary analysis by national statistics agency INEGI. This is the same rate as in the previous year.
• REGIONAL: In absolute numbers, INEGI reported a total of 36,476 murders in 2019. The Mexican states with the highest homicide rates were the small Pacific coast state of Colima (105 per 100,00) and the US border states of Baja California and Chihuahua (79 and 78 per 100,000 respectively).
• HISTORIC: “The homicide rate…stood in 2019 at a value of 29, equal to 2018, the highest in Mexico’s recent history”, Julio Santaella, the head of INEGI, wrote on Twitter. Starting on 2008, Mexico’s homicide rate started to climb mostly associated to violence in specific Mexican states.
• COMPARISON: Mexico’s murder rate is among the highest rates in the Americas where the average homicide rate stands at 17.2 per 100,000, according to the most recent report by the UN’s Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Along with Africa, the Americas is the world’s most violent continent.
