Worldwide homicide deaths...

...have dropped by 1/3 since 2000

We’ve looked at battle deaths and genocide deaths, but how about murder? Once again, the trend, in general, is positive. In particular, the US has seen a dramatic drop in its murder rate since 1990 (although, as you can see, it did increase during the 1970s). But the worldwide homicide rate has fallen from 9 per 100,000 to 6 per 100,000 in just 15 years.

Homicide rates correlate strongly with other violent crimes this means a general reduction for person-on-person violence in general. What is behind this change? Once again, homicide rates tend to drop as countries get richer. There are several reasons for this, but better policing and a stronger social safety net seem to be at the centre of the process.

In fact, homicide rates vary substantially around the world:

The highest rates tend to be in South America and sub-Saharan Africa, where the rates can be up to 100 times other (generally more developed) countries. Helping these countries along the path to development will likely reduce those rates substantially.

As a whole, however, we are living at the time in history when an average person is least likely to be murdered, which is surely something to be cheerful about.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/homicides and Enlightenment Now, Stephen Pinker