Countries in Africa by homicide rate
Intentional homicides in a year for every 100,000 people, from police and health records collected by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Records are uneven, so figures up to seven years old are shown. 27 countries in Africa, highest first. World Bank, mostly 2022
Median country
4.7
half above, half below| # | Country | Per 100,000 people | Year | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  South Africa | 43.7 | 2022 | Southern Africa |
| 2 |  Central African Republic | 20.1 | 2016 | Middle Africa |
| 3 |  Nigeria | 15.7 | 2023 | Western Africa |
| 4 |  Eswatini | 12.5 | 2021 | Southern Africa |
| 5 |  Botswana | 11.4 | 2021 | Southern Africa |
| 6 |  Namibia | 11.2 | 2021 | Southern Africa |
| 7 |  Uganda | 9.0 | 2023 | Eastern Africa |
| 8 |  Seychelles | 8.0 | 2022 | Eastern Africa |
| 9 |  Cabo Verde | 7.0 | 2020 | Western Africa |
| =10 |  Cameroon | 6.8 | 2022 | Middle Africa |
| =10 |  Zimbabwe | 6.8 | 2022 | Eastern Africa |
| 12 |  Burundi | 5.6 | 2016 | Eastern Africa |
| 13 |  Kenya | 4.9 | 2022 | Eastern Africa |
| 14 |  Tunisia | 4.7 | 2020 | Northern Africa |
| 15 |  Angola | 4.1 | 2016 | Middle Africa |
| 16 |  Tanzania | 3.7 | 2020 | Eastern Africa |
| 17 |  Rwanda | 3.6 | 2020 | Eastern Africa |
| 18 |  Mauritius | 2.3 | 2022 | Eastern Africa |
| 19 |  Sierra Leone | 2.2 | 2020 | Western Africa |
| 20 |  Ghana | 1.8 | 2022 | Western Africa |
| 21 |  Morocco | 1.7 | 2023 | Northern Africa |
| =22 |  Burkina Faso | 1.3 | 2017 | Western Africa |
| =22 |  Egypt | 1.3 | 2017 | Northern Africa |
| 24 |  Algeria | 1.2 | 2023 | Northern Africa |
| =25 |  Benin | 1.1 | 2017 | Western Africa |
| =25 |  Guinea-Bissau | 1.1 | 2017 | Western Africa |
| 27 |  Mauritania | 1.0 | 2020 | Western Africa |
No World Bank figure for 27 countries: Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Zambia.
Questions
- Which country in Africa has the highest homicide rate?
- South Africa has the highest homicide rate in Africa: 43.7 homicides per 100,000 people (2022). Next come the Central African Republic (20.1 homicides per 100,000 people) and Nigeria (15.7 homicides per 100,000 people).
- Which country in Africa has the lowest homicide rate?
- Mauritania, with 1.0 homicides per 100,000 people (2020).
- What is the typical homicide rate of a country in Africa?
- The median of the 27 countries in Africa is 4.7 homicides per 100,000 people: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.
- Where do the figures come from?
- Intentional homicides in a year for every 100,000 people, from police and health records collected by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Records are uneven, so figures up to seven years old are shown. Source: World Bank, mostly 2022. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.
Source: World Bank (CC BY 4.0). Figures more than 7 years older than the newest are left out rather than shown beside current ones. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.