Murder rate in South Africa
The murder crime-type page shows raw counts; this page shows the same murders adjusted for population as a rate per 100,000.
South Africa recorded 23,096 murders in Apr 2025–Mar 2026, the latest complete SAPS financial year, which is 37.2 murders per 100,000 people against the Census 2022 population estimate. The count was down 9.1% vs Apr 2024–Mar 2025.
Latest published quarter: 5,424 murders in Apr–Jun 2026, down 6% vs Apr–Jun 2025. A rate is shown only for complete years.
How these rates are calculated: rate = SAPS murders in the financial year (April to March) divided by the Census 2022 population estimate, times 100,000. Populations are the Stats SA Ward-level Small Area Population Estimates 2022 (published November 2025), so rates pair Apr 2025–Mar 2026 counts with 2022 populations. Multi-year rate trends hold the population constant at the 2022 estimate, which makes rates for earlier and later years approximate. Murder rates are computed at national and province level only, not per precinct: we hold precinct-level populations only for the 63 City of Cape Town precincts, which is why the City of Cape Town page is the one other place the site shows a rate (all reported crimes per 100,000 residents).
For international comparison, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime lists South Africa at 39.7 victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 people for 2024. That is SAPS's own national murder count for the 2024/25 financial year (25,423, which includes the handful of stations we leave out, so it can differ from our table by a few), divided by UNODC's population estimate rather than the Census 2022 figure used above. Source: UNODC Data Portal.
Which province has the highest murder rate?
Rate per 100,000 people. Bars coloured by the direction of the murder count vs the previous financial year: teal = fewer murders, orange = more, grey = within 2%.
| Province | Population (Census 2022) | Murders 2025/26 | Per 100,000 | Count vs 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | 7,230,204 | 4,347 | 60.1 | -9.5% |
| Western Cape | 7,433,020 | 4,448 | 59.8 | -0.4% |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 12,423,907 | 4,743 | 38.2 | -14.8% |
| Gauteng | 15,099,423 | 5,631 | 37.3 | -8.3% |
| Free State | 2,964,412 | 794 | 26.8 | -11.3% |
| North West | 3,804,547 | 976 | 25.7 | -11.2% |
| Northern Cape | 1,355,945 | 335 | 24.7 | -10.7% |
| Mpumalanga | 5,143,324 | 1,053 | 20.5 | -15.9% |
| Limpopo | 6,572,721 | 769 | 11.7 | -6.6% |
Is South Africa's murder rate rising or falling?
Dashed: Apr–Jun 2026 only (1 of 4 quarters published) — a partial year, not comparable with the full years before it.
National murder counts per SAPS financial year (April to March).
| Financial year | Murders | Per 100,000 (2022 population) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026/27 (Apr–Jun 2026 only) | 5,424 | — |
| 2025/26 | 23,096 | 37.2 |
| 2024/25 | 25,421 | 41.0 |
| 2023/24 | 27,419 | 44.2 |
| 2022/23 | 27,270 | 44.0 |
| 2021/22 | 24,864 | 40.1 |
| 2020/21 | 19,845 | 32.0 |
| 2019/20 | 21,341 | 34.4 |
| 2018/19 | 21,018 | 33.9 |
| 2017/18 | 20,335 | 32.8 |
| 2016/17 | 19,012 | 30.7 |
| 2015/16 | 18,673 | 30.1 |
| 2014/15 | 17,805 | 28.7 |
| 2013/14 | 17,023 | 27.4 |
Every rate in this column uses the same Census 2022 population estimate (62,027,503), because matching official population estimates do not exist for each year. Rates for years far from 2022 are therefore approximate: the real population was smaller in earlier years, so true earlier-year rates were somewhat higher than shown.