Data on world cities murders is always by murder rates. If a model of high murder rates in slums and low murders in better off areas and suburbs is a good approximation, then the murder rate is diluted by the amount of wealthier areas, and not a good method of comparison. Taking the actual number of murders weighs in the population size of the dangerous areas and their lethality. It is also the amount of suffering the city endures. It is also the size of the problem that must be dealt with and cured by the city. Here we list the top 14 world cities (not at war) in numbers of murders, and also include the murder rate per 100,000 as added data. We use the data for 2011 from Wikipedia that comes from Mexico’s Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.
| Rank | City | Country | Murders | Rate | |
| 1 | Caracas | Venezuela | 3,164 | 99 | |
| 2 | Guatamala City | Guatamala | 2,248 | 75 | |
| 3 | Salvador | Brazil | 2,037 | 57 | |
| 4 | Juarez | Mexico | 1,974 | 148 | |
| 5 | Recife | Brazil | 1,793 | 48 | |
| 6 | Cali | Colombia | 1,720 | 78 | |
| 7 | Monterrey | Brazil | 1,680 | 40 | |
| 8 | Belo Horizonte | Brazil | 1,680 | 34 | |
| 9 | Belem | Brazil | 1,639 | 78 | |
| 10 | Medellin | Colombia | 1,624 | 70 | |
| 11 | Cape Town | South Africa | 1,614 | 46 | |
| 12 | Maceio | Brazil | 1,564 135 | ||
| 13 | Fortezela | Brazil | 1,514 | 43 | |
| 14 | San Salvador | El Salvador | 1,343 | 59 |
After this there are six other cities above but near 1,000 murders in the table of the top 50 by rate.
Seven of the top 14 cities by number of murders are in Brazil.
By comparison, the highest number of murders for US cities in 2011 were New York with 515 and Chicago with 435.
