California’s homicide rate climbed for another year in 2021, marking the state’s highest homicide rate in at least a decade. 

California experienced a homicide spike in 2020: The number of homicides increased by 31% from 2019. But a long-range look at crime statistics, particularly homicide data, shows that the 2020 crime rate nationally and in California was still a fraction of its highs in the early 1990s.

Kern County once again had the state’s highest homicide rate in 2021, at 13.7 homicides per 100,000 people. That was also the case last year, when the county’s homicide rate per 100,000 people was 12.7 in 2020 — the state’s highest — or about one for every 8,000 people.  Statewide, the average homicide rate climbed to 6 people per 100,000. In 2020, the statewide homicide rate was 5.5.

In Kern County, the homicide rate per 100,000 people was 12.7 in 2020 — the state’s highest — or about one for every 8,000 people.  Statewide, the average homicide rate was 5.5. 

Some parts of California were able to suppress a spike in homicides. Monterey County’s homicide rate, once as high as 13.8 people per 100,000 in 2015, has dropped significantly, and in 2020 was lower than the statewide average at 3.2 per 100,000.