Homicides in Philadelphia

Since 1988, nearly 9,000 people have been slain on the streets of Philadelphia, affecting every neighborhood in the city. To put that deadly toll in perspective, during the length of U.S. combat operations in the Iraq war, 3,517 American troops were killed in action — and 3,113 people were killed in Philadelphia.

During that time period, Philadelphia’s victims were not equally distributed among gender, age, and racial groups. Each year, black men make up a disproportionately large percentage of homicide victims. Last year, for instance,12 white men between the ages of 18 and 29 were killed. Those deaths represent about 4 percent of all homicide victims, roughly equal to the 5 percent share of young white men in the general population. In contrast, black men in the same age group accounted for 48 percent of all homicide victims, but only 4 percent of the city’s population. Overall, 75 percent of all homicide victims were black men.

Explore the data

You can explore these and other trends in the map and charts below. The map shows the location of every homicide since 1988. Use the menus above the map to choose the number of years to display. The “search data” menu allows you to search for victims by name, and to filter the results by age, race, sex, time of day, and weapon used.

All homicide data are from the Philadelphia Police Department, which does not account for Hispanic origin when determining a victim’s race. Get the full list of homicide victims here

-- John Duchneskie