SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Black Americans make up almost 14% of the country’s population but accounted for over half of all homicide victims. Missouri is the state with the worst Black homicide rate.

According to a Violence Policy Center study released in July 2022, Missouri had the highest rate of Black homicide victims in 2019. The new study found that Missouri has the most Black homicide victims in the nation and has held that rank for six years.

Missouri also had the highest rate in 2014 and every year between. From 2014 to 2019, the Black homicide victimization rate in Missouri increased by 45%, the study reported.

In 2019, the Black homicide rate in Missouri was 50.64 per 100,000 people. This is a substantial lead from the state with the second-highest rate:

It should be noted that the FBI did not give information about the numbers of Black homicide victims in Alabama and Florida.

The state of Missouri has been in either first or second place in the nation when it comes to Black homicide victims for 13 years. To put these numbers into perspective, Missouri was where 18.9% of all of the nation’s Black homicide victims died.

The United State Census Bureau reported that Black Americans accounted for about 13.6% of the population in the nation. Missouri’s population is around 11.8% Black. Missouri doesn’t rank in the top 10 states with the highest Black populations. In fact, the 2020 U.S. Census showed that Missouri had a lower population of Black citizens than the national average.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent numbers for firearm mortality for all races put Missouri in fourth place in the nation in 2020. The vast majority of homicides occur in St. Louis and Kansas City.