FBI data is expected to show murders in the U.S. increased by nearly 30% in 2020 — the highest annual spike in at least 60 years, according to news reports.
The agency’s Uniform Crime Report is set to be released Monday, but preliminary data temporarily uploaded to the FBI website showed murders last year went up nearly 29% compared to 2019, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
If the data remains unchanged, it will reportedly be the largest single-year increase since the 12.7% change in 1968.
Around 21,500 murders were reportedly tallied last year, which is approximately 5,000 more than in 2019 — but the overall murder rate is still lower than that of the 1990s.
Despite the uptick in murders and a nearly 5% hike in violent crime, the annual crime data is said to have shown major crimes overall dropped between 4% to 5% in 2020.