By the numbers
The number of homicides in Milwaukee dropped sharply in 2024 from the previous year and even more from a peak in 2022. But the rate of homicides per 100,000 residents remains over 10 times greater in the city than the last five years’ average rate in the rest of Wisconsin, analysis of FBI and Milwaukee Police Department crime data shows.
After peaking in 2022, the Milwaukee homicide rate decreased to 30.05 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2023, and fell again to 22.86 in 2024, according to recent figures from the Milwaukee Police.
Homicide totals for Wisconsin as a whole, kept by the FBI, run only through 2023; a “rest of Wisconsin” rate can’t yet be calculated for 2024.
Since 2000, the homicide rate for all of Wisconsin except for Milwaukee fluctuated from 0.86 in 2002 to 2.57 in 2021. The average for the five most recent years of data is 2.17. Over the same period, Milwaukee’s rate was as low as 12 in 2008.
In absolute terms, the number of homicides in Milwaukee decreased from a high of 211 in 2022 to 132 in 2024. For the rest of the state, there were 109 homicides in 2022 and 118 in 2023.
The Badger Institute last reported on homicide rates in the state in 2023.
The underlying numbers
| Homicides | Homicide rate: Homicides per 100,000 population | ||||
| Year | Milwaukee | Rest of Wisconsin | Milwaukee | Rest of Wisconsin | |
| 2000 | 122 | 42 | 20.15 | 0.89 | |
| 2001 | 127 | 66 | 21.33 | 1.37 | |
| 2002 | 111 | 42 | 18.63 | 0.86 | |
| 2003 | 110 | 72 | 18.48 | 1.47 | |
| 2004 | 87 | 66 | 14.65 | 1.34 | |
| 2005 | 121 | 86 | 20.41 | 1.72 | |
| 2006 | 103 | 62 | 17.45 | 1.23 | |
| 2007 | 105 | 80 | 17.79 | 1.58 | |
| 2008 | 71 | 75 | 12.02 | 1.48 | |
| 2009 | 72 | 74 | 12.33 | 1.45 | |
| 2010 | 95 | 60 | 16.37 | 1.17 | |
| 2011 | 86 | 52 | 14.44 | 1.02 | |
| 2012 | 93 | 75 | 15.62 | 1.47 | |
| 2013 | 104 | 59 | 17.44 | 1.15 | |
| 2014 | 86 | 71 | 14.43 | 1.38 | |
| 2015 | 146 | 91 | 24.51 | 1.76 | |
| 2016 | 141 | 91 | 23.71 | 1.76 | |
| 2017 | 119 | 70 | 20.13 | 1.35 | |
| 2018 | 100 | 76 | 16.79 | 1.46 | |
| 2019 | 97 | 92 | 16.43 | 1.75 | |
| 2020 | 192 | 121 | 32.70 | 2.30 | |
| 2021 | 195 | 137 | 33.16 | 2.58 | |
| 2022 | 211 | 109 | 36.55 | 2.03 | |
| 2023 | 173 | 118 | 30.05 | 2.20 | |
| 2024 | 132 | 22.86 | |||
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