The Brazilian Igarapé think tank has released an interactive map with statistics revealing places in the world where people are most likely to be murdered. Compiled using data from UNODC Homicide Statistics 2013, the Homicide Monitoring map shows that Latin America has the highest homicide rates.

Within the East African Region Uganda has the third best rates at 10.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, coming in after Burundi at 8 and Kenya with 6.4 per every 100,000. The country with the highest is the Democratic Republic of Congo with a rate of 28. 3 and a homicide estimate of 18,586 – this is followed by Rwanda (23.1) and Tanzania (12.7).

Regional Statistics

According to the report:

• 437,000 people were victims of homicides worldwide in 2012;
• El Salvador, Venezuela and Brazil are the places where murders are most common;
• 1 in 5 people murdered in the world is either a Venezuelan, Brazilian or Columbian;
• 14 out of the 20 most murderous countries in the world are from the Caribbean;
• This Latin American region holds only 8% of the world’s total population.

The African country with the lowest homicide rate is Algeria with 0.7 and a homicide count of 280; the highest are the Southern African nations of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho with 31, 33.8 and 38 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants respectively.