Violent crime plunged across the United States in 2025, marking what the FBI says was the biggest drop in violent crime and murder since 1937.
The bureau’s preliminary “First Look: 2025 Crime Data” showed violent crime fell an estimated 9.3% from 2024 to 2025, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped an estimated 18.1%. Robbery fell 18.5%. Rape declined 7.6%, and aggravated assault dipped 7.2%.
Property crime also moved sharply lower, falling an estimated 12.4% year over year.
“The 2025 crime data in this report shows the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder since 1937 – as well as huge decreases across the board in terms of aggravated assault, rape, and robbery,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.
“Over the last 14 months, we made major transformations at the FBI, and these results show those changes are working. This FBI will continue to stack these wins for the American people under President Trump and always Back the Blue every step of the way.”
The data came from more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies covering 96% of the U.S. population. More than 15,000 agencies submitted data through the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
The numbers are an unmistakable law-and-order win for the Trump-era FBI, though the toll remains high.
Roughly 1.1 million violent crimes were still committed in 2025, along with about 5.2 million property crimes, according to the preliminary figures reported by Fox News.
That means a violent crime occurred about every 28 seconds, a murder every 37.3 minutes, and a rape roughly every four minutes. Property crimes happened about every six seconds.
Police also paid a heavy price.
The report found 53 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty, more than 90,000 were assaulted, and 28 died accidentally while working.
The FBI said the early release was possible because of its move toward monthly crime data reporting. The final 2025 “Reported Crimes in the Nation” report is expected later this year.
US violent crime rate plummets by fastest rate in nearly 90 years, FBI says https://t.co/LG8M7EMUgh pic.twitter.com/4LLrtG6Sze
— New York Post (@nypost) May 19, 2026
