In 2024, El Salvador’s Homicide Rate Was 0.31 per Day or 1.9 Homicides per Every 100,000 Inhabitants

El Salvador ended 2024 by setting a new security record. It reported 114 homicides and went 281 days without any, making it the safest year in over 50 years.

El Salvador’s 2024 homicide rate was 0.31 per day or 1.9 homicides per every 100,000 inhabitants, a decrease of 26.9% compared to 2023, resulting in 42 fewer murders, a remarkable transformation since 2015, when El Salvador earned the infamous label of “the murder capital of the world.”

Based on the number of homicides and days without murders, 2024 is by far the safest year in El Salvador in over five decades.

Between January 1 and December 31, 2024, Salvadoran Authorities reported 114 homicides for a 0.31 daily rate. It is 42 less than the 156 recorded in the same 2023 period. El Salvador closed 2024 with 114 homicides, for a rate of 1.9 homicides per every 100,000 inhabitants.

SEE ALSO: El Salvador State of Exception; a security measure implemented to fight gangs

The homicide stats for 2022, 2023, and 2024 do not include the deaths of alleged gang members who have died in confrontations with Salvadoran security forces, 120 deaths in 2022, 38 in 2023, and five in 2024.

The Bukele administration credits its Territorial Control Plan security measure and the State of Exception for the incredible homicide reduction in El Salvador.

The government launched the Territorial Control Plan security measure in June 2019; its purpose has been to crack down on the country’s violence and gangs.

Then, in March 2022, the Bukele administration introduced the controversial State of Exception, a direct attack on Salvadoran criminal gangs.

Compared to what the country experienced in the previous 30 years, this homicide reduction gained in the last few years is an immense achievement for the current administration.

SEE ALSO: Days Without Homicides in El Salvador

Homicide Rate Under the Bukele Administration

President Nayib Bukele took office on June 1, 2019, and one of the first items on his agenda was to deal with the country’s security problems, which had been what El Salvador was known for and one of the most critical challenges El Salvador had faced in the last 40-plus years.

To deal with the country’s security problems, Bukele launched his territorial control security plan to fight gangs and reduce the country’s violence.

In 2020, Nayib Bukele’s first full year in office, El Salvador saw a record-low homicide rate of 21.2 per 100,000 people, or 3.67 per day. This record was subsequently broken in 2021, 2022, 2023, and once more in 2024.

President Bukele and his administration credit the homicide reduction to their security measures. However, members of Bukele’s opposition and the U.S. government alleged that this reduction resulted from a secret truce between gangs and the Bukele administration.

On December 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a press release announcing sanctions against two members of Bukele’s cabinet due to these alleged negotiations with gangs.

“Osiris Luna Meza (Luna) and Carlos Amilcar Marroquin Chica (Marroquin) led, facilitated, and organized a number of secret meetings involving incarcerated gang leaders, in which known gang members were allowed to enter the prison facilities and meet with senior gang leadership. These meetings were part of the Government of El Salvador’s efforts to negotiate a secret truce with gang leadership.” U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The members of the Bukele cabinet accused have not made any public remarks regarding the U.S. allegations.

El Salvador’s Homicide Rate Since 1991

Since 1991, El Salvador has been one of the most violent countries in the world, not at war.

The country entered the list of the top 20 countries with a high homicide rate in 1994. It quickly jumped to the first position and maintained that position until 2000.

In 2009, El Salvador again reached the first position and kept it until mid-2010, when Honduras jumped to number one. Then, in 2015, it reached the first position again; this time, it maintained the rank until late 2019.

Finally, around mid to late 2021, El Salvador left the list of the top 20 countries with the highest homicide rate per 100,000 people.