VIENNA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- More people were killed by homicide than by armed conflict and terrorism combined in 2021, with an average of 52 victims worldwide per hour, according to a report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Friday.
Homicide accounted for about 458,000 deaths worldwide in 2021, higher than the annual average of around 440,000 deaths from 2019 to 2021, making 2021 "an exceptionally lethal year," UNODC said in the report "Global Study on Homicide 2023."
The spike in homicide-induced deaths in 2021 was caused partly by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in organized crime and gang-related and socio-political violence, according to the report.
From a region-by-region perspective, the report shows that the Americas had the world's highest regional homicide rate per capita, 15 per 100,000 population, in 2021, while Africa registered the highest absolute number of homicides, a total of 176,000 cases, that year.
Firearms were used in 75 percent of homicides recorded in the Americas in 2021, while they were employed in less than 20 percent of homicides in Europe and Asia. ■
