Concord Ledger

As the U.S reports record-high increases in the homicide rate, New Hampshire is a bright spot in the data.

According to CNN, the U.S. recently recorded a 30% jump in homicides — the largest increase in modern history. The murder rate in New Hampshire, however, is at its lowest rate since 2009: 0.9 murders per 100,000 people.

“The rise in crime we’ve seen since the George Floyd death and the riots over the summer is astounding,” Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute told Inez Stepman of the Independent Women’s Forum. “Last year we saw the largest percentage increase in homicides in this nation’s history, and it’s gotten worse in 2021."

Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at National Center for Health Statistics, told CNN, "It is the largest increase in 100 years." Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime reports show that 21,570 Americans were murdered in 2020, compared to 16,425 in 2019.

FBI data goes back to the 1960s, when the FBI first started recording homicide data. In 2019, the homicide rate in the country was six per 100,000 people, but it increased to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2020. Though this is the highest rate since 1995, it is still lower than the 10 homicides per 100,000 people seen in the 1980s, CNN reports. 

With respect to other violent crime, New Hampshire has some trouble spots. Concord, for example, has seen an increase in rapes and aggravated assaults throughout the city.

According to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, while violent crime in New Hampshire has been declining since 2015, Concord saw a 100% increase in rapes and a 66% increase in aggravated assaults in 2020. 

Even with Concord's numbers, the violent crime rate in New Hampshire was well below the national rate, standing at 146.4 incidents per 100,000 people, compared to 398.5 incidents per 100,000 people nationally, the FBI reports. 

As crime rates continue to rise, police departments across the country have been struggling to recruit officers due to lack of funding and poor public perception. MacDonald told Fox News that police retirements were up 45% in 2021, with resignations up 18%. This comes as National Fraternal Order of Police reports 75 ambush-style attacks on police officers, 241 officers shot and 44 killed in the same year.