El Salvador Homicide Rate: From the World’s Most Violent Country to a Regional Security Model

Thus far in 2026, El Salvador homicide rate is at 0.21 per day or 1.20 homicides per 100,000 people. Furthermore, this year, the country has achieved 82 days with no murders.

This year’s figures are almost similar to the same period in 2025, further solidifying the country’s ongoing security transformation.

El Salvador closed 2025 with a daily homicide rate of 0.22 and 1.36 homicides per 100,000 people, reinforcing the country’s continued decline in lethal violence.

The 2025 results represent a clear improvement over the previous year, extending a multi-year downward trend and consolidating gains in public security reflected in official crime statistics.

From January 1 to April 10, 2026, the Salvadoran National Police (PCN) reported 21 homicides for a 0.21 daily rate, two more than the 19 recorded in the same 2025 period. At this rate, El Salvador is projected to conclude 2026 with 77 homicides, equal to 1.20 homicides per 100,000 people.

The homicide stats for 2019 to 2026 do not include the deaths of alleged gang members who have died in confrontations with Salvadoran security forces, as well as murders involving bodies found in mass graves.

2025: El Salvador’s Safest Year in Over Five Decades

El Salvador ended 2025 with a historic milestone in public safety—just 82 homicides. That’s an average of 0.22 homicides per day for a rate of 1.36 murders per 100,000 people, a 28.1% decrease from 2024 (32 fewer murders recorded).

This achievement made 2025 the safest year in El Salvador in over 50 years, a dramatic shift from 2015, when the country was labeled “the murder capital of the world.”

The sustained low homicide rate demonstrates a continuing shift toward greater security and stability, in a country that was known for violence.

Throughout the year, El Salvador has reported several days without homicides, a dramatic shift for a nation once plagued by violence.

What’s Behind the Transformation?

The Bukele administration attributes this dramatic drop in homicides to two major security initiatives: the territorial control plan and the State of Exception.

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; it granted authorities the power to arrest suspected gang members and expanded security operations nationwide.

The government has widely credited these measures for turning around El Salvador’s decades-long struggle with gang violence and criminal impunity.

Bukele’s Administration and the Homicide Decline

Since President Nayib Bukele took office in June 2019, homicide rates have consistently dropped year over year:

• 2015: 18.24 homicides per day (106.3 per 100,000 people), Most violent year since the end of the civil war.
• 2019: 6.57 homicides per day (35.8 per 100,000 people), Bukele’s first six month in office “June to December.”
• 2020: 3.67 homicides per day (21.2 per 100,000 people), the lowest in decades at the time.
• 2021–2025: Each year broke the previous year’s record low, culminating in 2025’s unprecedented numbers.
• 2025: 0.22 homicides per day (1.36 per 100,000 people), the lowest in over five decades.

The administration has hailed these results as proof of the success of its security policies. However, critics, both domestically and internationally, have raised concerns.

Gang Truce Allegations

President Bukele and his administration credit the homicide reduction to their security measures.

However, some members of the opposition, along with the U.S. government, allege 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 imposed sanctions on two members of Bukele’s cabinet, alleging secret negotiations with criminal 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.

Those accused of negotiating with criminal gangs to reduce homicides have not publicly responded to the claims.

A Look Back: El Salvador’s Homicide Crisis Since 1991

For decades, El Salvador was among the most violent nations in the world, not at war.

The country entered the top 20 highest homicide rate rankings in 1994, quickly claiming, and often reclaiming, the top spot:

• 1994–2000: Consistently among the most violent globally.
• 2009–2010: Returned to first place, before Honduras overtook it.
• 2015: Once again, El Salvador topped the global homicide charts.
• 2015–2019: Held that grim title until significant changes began under the Bukele administration.

By late 2021, the country had finally left the list of the world’s top 20 most violent nations, a feat many once thought impossible.

El Salvador Homicide Rate: A Historic Turnaround

El Salvador’s security turnaround is one of the most significant societal shifts in its modern history.

Whether credited entirely to government policies or subject to more complex dynamics, the numbers speak for themselves: a nation once gripped by violence is now writing a new chapter, one marked by safety, recovery, and hope.

As 2026 begins, all eyes remain on El Salvador to see how far this transformation can go.

El Salvador Homicide Stats 2019-2021