New York City recorded 302 murders in 2025, down from 380 in 2024, a decrease of nearly 21% and one of the lowest annual totals in the modern CompStat era, according to year-end figures reported by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Shooting incidents and shooting victims both fell to the fewest in the department’s recorded history.

The headline numbers

The 78-murder drop from 2024 to 2025 continued a multiyear decline from the pandemic-era spike. Tisch reported that the city saw 239 fewer people shot in 2025 than in 2024, and 1,016 fewer than in 2021, the peak year for gun violence in the period. The department characterized the shooting totals as the lowest in its recorded history.

The downward trend held through the final stretch of the year. In November 2025 alone, murders fell 46.7% year over year — from 30 to 16 — tying November 2018 for the fewest November homicides since 1994, with neither Queens nor Staten Island recording a single murder that month. Overall major crime in November was down 5.6%, with robbery off 12.4%, burglary down 17.3%, and grand larceny auto down 14%.

Not every category fell. Felony assault ticked up 1.5% in November, and hate crime incidents rose 50% that month, from 36 to 54. The persistence of felony assault as the most stubborn of the seven major-crime categories has been a recurring theme in the city’s crime data.

The subway picture

Transit crime, a politically charged barometer because of its outsized effect on how safe New Yorkers feel, fell sharply. November transit crime dropped 24.8%, from 222 incidents to 167. With two weeks remaining in 2025, subway major crime was running 5.2% below 2024 and 14.4% below 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year.

Adjusted for ridership, the improvement is more pronounced. The NYPD recorded roughly 1.65 major crimes per million riders in 2025, down about 30% from 2021 and comparable to pre-pandemic lows. Governor Kathy Hochul, who announced a state subway-safety push, said the last five months of 2025 combined ranked among the safest stretches in the system’s recorded history outside the pandemic years, when ridership had collapsed.

What’s driving the decline

The NYPD has attributed the gun-violence drop to focused deployments, precision policing of the small number of people responsible for most shootings, and gun seizures. The state has layered on subway-specific spending: Hochul announced an additional $77 million for enhanced NYPD subway patrols heading into 2026, on top of earlier surges of officers into the system.

Criminologists urge caution in reading any single year. The Brennan Center for Justice, in its 2025 review of city crime and safety trends, has noted that murders and shootings nationally rose during the pandemic and have since fallen back toward pre-2020 levels in many cities, making New York’s decline part of a broader national pattern rather than a purely local story.

The political backdrop

The year-end numbers landed as Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office on January 1, 2026, having retained Tisch as commissioner — a continuity decision that gave the incoming administration ownership of a falling crime curve. Tisch credited the resources made available under outgoing Mayor Eric Adams for the 2025 improvements, framing the gains as the product of sustained investment rather than a single policy.

How the trend holds in 2026 — particularly on felony assault and subway-rider perception, which often lags the statistics — will shape the public-safety record of the new administration.

Verification

Frequently Asked Questions

How many murders were there in New York City in 2025?
302, according to NYPD year-end CompStat figures — down from 380 in 2024, a decrease of nearly 21%.
Were shootings at a record low in 2025?
Yes. The NYPD reported the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims in its recorded CompStat history in 2025, with 239 fewer people shot than in 2024 and 1,016 fewer than in 2021.
What happened with subway crime in 2025?
Major crime in the transit system trended down to among the lowest levels in a generation. With two weeks left in 2025, subway major crime was down 5.2% from 2024 and 14.4% from 2019.
Who reported these figures?
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, using the department's CompStat crime-tracking system.