The FBI’s initial homicide data was published this week, and while the numbers may slightly change as the agency reevaluates them before its news release on Monday, the numbers show just how deadly 2020 was.

The initial data for 2020 indicates that the United States has seen the largest single-year increase in homicides since the start of national recordkeeping in 1960, nearly tripling the previous 1968 high. The murder rate in 2020 was the highest recorded since 1998, which is before at least a quarter of the U.S. population was born.

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