Dec 2025
2025 End-of-Year Analysis: Chicago Crime Trends
Topics
Projects
Violent crime declined substantially in 2025 across the country, including in our home city of Chicago – which experienced 168 fewer homicides through mid-December 2025 compared to the same period last year.
At the same time the rate of violent crime, particularly homicides, remains dramatically higher in Chicago compared to what one sees in other major cities around the world like London, Paris, Berlin or Tokyo (or, for that matter, New York City and Los Angeles). And Chicago, like most U.S. cities, must figure out a solution to this problem in the face of severe budget challenges as federal pandemic relief expires and downtown recovery continues to lag after COVID-19.
So what should financially strained cities do on the public safety front? In some sense the only thing they can do is try to generate more public safety return on every dollar spent. And the only path towards that goal is innovation and R&D – trying new things, measuring what happens, and doing more of what helps and less of what doesn’t. That’s been the mission of the University of Chicago Crime Lab since we started 18 years ago: Serving as an R&D partner to our home city and others around the country to figure out how to do more with less to help improve the lives of as many people as possible.
We hope the end-of-year analysis below is a useful contribution towards that end.
Topics
Projects
While Chicago has seen encouraging reductions in violent crime in 2025, gun violence still claimed hundreds of lives—leaving families and communities grieving and our city forever changed. Our hope in releasing this analysis is to offer important context to the recent reductions and to be clear-eyed about the challenges that remain. By being data-driven in confronting the deeply felt safety gap that persists across the city, we hope to continue to serve as a resource to public sector and community and business leaders as we work collectively to save lives and create a healthy and prosperous city for all.
Founding Executive Director, University of Chicago Crime Lab
I am encouraged to see Chicago making real progress on violent crime. Homicides, shootings, and robberies are down by substantial margins and long-standing gaps with other major cities are beginning to narrow. Yet the burden of violence continues to fall unevenly across communities, and the survivability of shootings continues to be problematic. These trends remind us that progress at home is possible, and that a continued focus on evidence-based solutions and equity in a challenging economic environment will be essential for the city to move closer to lasting safety.
Analytics Manager
EVENT: University of Chicago Economist Jens Ludwig on Reducing Gun Violence in Chicago
On January 14, Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig will return to the City Club of Chicago to discuss the Crime Lab’s 2025 end-of-year analysis of crime trends and the solutions to gun violence highlighted in his book, Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence.
Violence Reduction Dashboard
The Violence Reduction Dashboard is hosted on the City of Chicago’s website and is associated with the City’s Open Data Portal.
2024 End-of-Year Analysis: Chicago Crime Trends
Gun violence remains one of the most pressing challenges in America but there are signs of progress.
Summer Safety Analysis: Chicago Crime Trends
These data visualizations present our summer safety analysis on Chicago crime trends.
2023 End-of-Year Analysis: Chicago Crime Trends
These slides present our end-of-year analysis on Chicago crime trends.
Latest Updates
Chicago looks to close out 2025 with a 10-year low in violent crime
The Crime Lab’s experts and end-of-year analysis of Chicago crime trends are heavily featured in the latest Crain’s Forum on violence reduction.
Chicago’s Homicides Are Headed for Lowest Tally in 60 Years
Kim Smith, the Crime Lab’s Director of National Programs, speaks with Bloomberg’s Miranda Davis about the 2025 declines in violent crime in Chicago.
Overview of the City of Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard
The Crime Lab hosted a webinar that explored the City of Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard—a publicly available tool launched to support efforts to reduce gun violence through transparent, real-time data.