In 2023, the city of Los Angeles recorded 327 murders, a tragic loss of life and giving the city a murder rate higher than most large cities in California.
A city’s murder total is often used to judge its overall safety, but understanding the death toll requires context. Los Angeles’ murder rate (the number of murders per 100,000 residents) is lower than many other major municipalities across the nation. The murder toll of 327 is above pre-COVID levels but 65 lower than in 2022.
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A new report from California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a Los Angeles Police Department report released earlier this year offer a comparison between the city and the state.
The city’s murder rate last year was 8.4 per 100,000 residents. The statewide rate was 4.8 per 100,000 residents, according to Bonta’s “Murder in California 2023” report. The city’s rate regularly exceeds the statewide rate.
The nation’s major metropolitan areas often have higher crime and murder rates due to factors including population density, income levels and historic racial inequality. The city’s rate is higher than New York City’s rate of 4.4 per 100,000 people, but below the levels of Houston (15.1) and Chicago (22.5), according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s 2023 Crime and Commitment Report. Washington, D.C.’s rate was 39.7 per 100,000 people, according to the report.
Bonta’s report breaks down the total murder and homicide rates for each of the state’s 58 counties. Los Angeles County’s figure for 2023 was 7 murders per 100,000 residents. San Diego County, the second most populous, had a murder rate of just 2.4 murders per 100,000 residents (79 total murders). Orange County, the state’s third most populous, had 54 murders, or 1.7 murders per 100,000 residents.
At the other end of the spectrum, Alameda County was one of the few places to see a year-over-year increase in homicides, with 165 homicides countywide in 2023, due in part to a surge in violence in the city of Oakland. That equates to 10 homicides per 100,000 residents.
The situation has been particularly bad in Los Angeles: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the city was notorious for murders related to the drug trade: in 1992 alone, there were over 1,000 murders in the city.
Since then, the number of homicides has declined significantly. Over the past decade, California and the city have followed a similar trend, with homicides being relatively low in the mid-2010s, spiking at the onset of the pandemic, then declining each of the past two years. California saw 1,892 homicides in 2023, a 14.2% decrease from the previous year.
Black people suffer disproportionately
Homicide cases often disproportionately affect communities of color, and while that remains true across Los Angeles and California, locally, Black communities are hit even harder.
The city of Los Angeles has an 8.6% Black population, but according to the Los Angeles Police Department, 37% of homicide victims in 2023 were Black. The statewide population is 6.5% Black, according to U.S. Census figures, but 26.6% of homicide victims in 2023, or 503 people killed across California, were Black.
Forty-eight percent of Los Angeles residents identify as Latino, higher than the statewide level of about 40%. In 2023, 49% of homicide victims in Los Angeles were Latino, compared with 47% statewide, or 890.
White people make up about 28 percent of the city’s population, but only 7 percent of homicide victims last year were white. Statewide, 17 percent of victims (321) were white, while California is 34.3 percent white, according to census reports.
About 11.8% of the city’s population is Asian, and only 2% of local homicide victims were Asian. About 16.5% of Californians are Asian. The statewide report did not reveal the number or percentage of Asian homicide victims for 2023.
More men killed
There are some similarities between local and statewide homicide trends: In 2023, about 80% of homicide victims in California were men, while in the city, the figure was about 86%, according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s annual homicide report.
Guns are by far the most common weapon everywhere, with guns used in about 73% of homicides statewide and 72% in Los Angeles. Knives are used in 11% of homicides in the city and about 14.1% across California.
Other areas show notable differences: Gang-related homicides in Los Angeles fell significantly in 2023 from the previous year, but there were still 154 in the city, accounting for 47% of the total, compared with 23.4% statewide.
Another area where the LAPD’s numbers are higher has positive implications: The department’s clearance rate for 2023 was 76%, little changed from the previous year. The statewide level was 61.6%, the first time it has exceeded 60% since 2019.
“Authorization” refers to an arrest or, according to the LAPD, a case that has been “investigated to a point where further action is not possible based on certain criteria.” It does not mean that someone has been convicted or charged.
Methodology: We examined publicly available crime data and reports, including the California Attorney General’s “California Homicide 2023 Report,” the Los Angeles Police Department’s “2023 Crime and Commitment Report,” the Los Angeles Police Department’s “2023 Homicide Report,” and publicly available LAPD data from 2010-2023.
State data does not include annual figures for every county in California and is subject to change. LAPD data reflects only crimes reported to the police department, not the number of crimes that actually occurred. LAPD sometimes updates past crime reports with new information or reclassifies past reports. These corrected reports do not necessarily automatically become part of the public database.
If you have any questions or would like more information about our data, please contact us at [email protected]