By the numbers
The number of homicides rose in the city of Milwaukee in 2025 compared to 2024, while the number fell in rest of the state.
Milwaukee suffered 141 homicides in 2025, an increase of nine over the previous year, according to the Milwaukee Police Department crime dashboard. For all the rest of Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee’s city limits, the number of homicides fell considerably from 123 in 2024 to 94 in 2025, according to the FBI’s crime data explorer.
The rise in Milwaukee homicides brings the city’s homicide rate up to 24.3 homicides per 100,000 residents. The rate is down from its post-COVID peak of 36.5 in 2022, but well above the pre-COVID level of 16.4 in 2019, and it’s up 6 percent from 2024.
The rate in all the rest of Wisconsin fell from 2.3 homicides per 100,000 residents to 1.7, a decrease of 26 percent. Milwaukee’s homicide rate is more than 14 times as high as the rest of Wisconsin’s.
Since 2000, there have been more homicides in Milwaukee alone than in the rest of the state combined in 24 of the 26 years. The only exceptions were in 2008 and 2009, when Milwaukee reached lows of 71 and 72 homicides, respectively.
The Badger Institute previously reported on homicide rates in 2023 and 2025.
Wyatt Eichholz is a policy and legislative associate at the Badger Institute.
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