Nicaragua: Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)

Key figures

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 3.83 in 2018 and the biggest yearly fall was 2.71 in 2019. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2012 to 2021 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains less than 1% of the movement over 9 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2021, Nicaragua had the 3rd highest value of the 13 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Nicaragua in the 2021 ranking

• Eswatini — 1st of 13: 12.51
• Botswana — 2nd of 13: 11.37
• Namibia — 4th of 13: 11.21
• Peru — 5th of 13: 8.6
• Russian Federation — 6th of 13: 6.77

What this measures

An intentional homicide is defined as an unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury.

Limitations: Statistics reported to the United Nations in the context of its various surveys on crime levels and criminal justice trends are incidents of victimization that have been reported to the authorities in any given country. That means that this data is subject to the problems of accuracy of all official crime data. The survey results provide an overview of trends and interrelationships between various parts of the criminal justice system to promote informed decision-making in administration, nationally and internationally. The degree to which different societies apportion the level of culpability to acts resulting in death is also subject to variation.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a aggregate values are computed by unodc. for additional information, please see the unodc website: https://dataunodc.un.org/sites/dataunodc.un.org/files/metadata_intentional_homicide.pdf.

All 31 values

Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) in nearby economies

• Antigua and Barbuda — 10.72 (2023)
• Argentina — 4.49 (2023)
• Bahamas, The — 32.2 (2022)
• Barbados — 7.44 (2023)
• Belize — 28.06 (2022)
• Brazil — 19.28 (2023)
• Cayman Islands — 4.37 (2020)
• Chile — 6.35 (2023)
• Colombia — 24.91 (2023)
• Costa Rica — 17.75 (2023)

More public sector data for Nicaragua

• Military expenditure (current USD) — 116.37 million (2025)
• Military expenditure (current LCU) — 4.28 billion (2025)
• Military expenditure (% of GDP) — 0.56% (2025)
• Net investment in nonfinancial assets (current LCU) — 23.13 billion (2024)
• Net investment in nonfinancial assets (% of GDP) — 3.21% (2024)
• Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (current LCU) — 16.84 billion (2024)
• Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (% of GDP) — 2.33% (2024)
• Grants and other revenue (current LCU) — 11.04 billion (2024)
• Grants and other revenue (% of revenue) — 7.08% (2024)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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Questions people ask

What is Nicaragua's intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)?

11.35 in 2021, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is down 29.71% from 16.14 in 1990 (1.13% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 18.96 in 1992 and the lowest 6.82 in 2017.

How does Nicaragua rank?

3rd highest of 13 economies with data for 2021.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: UNODC Research - Data Portal – Intentional Homicide, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator VC.IHR.PSRC.P5, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: UNODC Research - Data Portal – Intentional Homicide, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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