Even with four months left in 2016, murder rates in Chicago in 2016 have already exceeded those in 2015.
The city’s 500th homicide happened over the weekend, reports the Chicago Tribune, when 65 people were shot, 13 of them to death. In 2015, 491 people were killed.
Numbers haven’t been this high since the early 1990s, when homicide totals were around 900 per year.
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In August, an average of three people were killed each day – in what turned out to be the deadliest month in 20 years; June 1996 also saw 90 people killed in one month. July 1993 still holds the record of deadliest, with 99 people killed.
The number of shootings and homicides over the Labour Day weekend were both higher than the Memorial Day and July 4 weekends and it was the last of the summer holidays before the school year started Tuesday.
Chicago, which has a population of 2.7 million people, has a per capita murder rate higher than most other big cities, like New York and Los Angeles. In fact, according to the Washington Post, it has more homicides than both those cities combined.
But it’s not the deadliest city per capita—with just over 300,000 people, both St. Louis and New Orleans have higher murder rates, according to CNN.
Police have said the reasons for the uptick in homicides are tied to the easily availability of guns and gang violence. Most of the killings have been concentrated in neighbourhoods on the city’s South and West sides that are plagued with high unemployment and poverty and where gang membership is particularly high.
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Canadian comparison
In 2015, Canada saw 604 homicides total, according to Statistics Canada. If Chicago stays on its current track, it’s predicted to reach well over 600 homicides in 2016.
In Canada, the city with a population closest to Chicago’s doesn’t even come close to Chicago’s crime rates.
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According to the Toronto Police Department, the city, which has around 2.6 million people, saw 56 homicides, of which 26 were shooting deaths. So far in 2016, it’s already up to 48, with four months left to go.
Vancouver, with a population of around 2.4 million, had 16 culpable homicides, according to Vancouver Police. So far in 2016 there have been four.
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Like in the United States, smaller cities have a higher crime rate than bigger ones. Saskatoon and Regina have the highest crime severity index in comparison with Toronto and Vancouver, according to Statistics Canada.
With files from The Associated Press
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