Homicide
In 2019, there were 397 Asian/Pacific Islander victims of homicide by all means in the United States. The Asian/Pacific Islander homicide victimization rate for that year was 1.82 per 100,000. In comparison, the overall homicide victimization rate for that year was 5.83 per 100,000, the Black homicide victimization rate was 21.86 per 100,000, and the white homicide victimization rate was 3.22 per 100,000.
While nationally homicide ranked 16th among all leading causes of death, for Asian/Pacific Islanders it ranked 18th, for Blacks it ranked seventh, and for whites it ranked 19th.
Looking at youth and young adults, however, in 2019, homicide ranked as the fourth leading cause of death for Asian/Pacific Islanders ages 15 to 24. Homicide ranked as the leading cause of death for Blacks in this age group, and third for American Indian/Alaska Natives and whites.
In 2019, 62 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander homicide victims were killed with firearms. (Because the CDC data does not report what type of firearm — handgun, rifle, or shotgun — was used in the homicide, this question is addressed later in this section using 2019 data from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report.) During the period 1999 to 2019, nearly three out of five Asian/Pacific Islander homicide victims were killed with firearms (58 percent).
Asian/Pacific Islander victims of firearm homicide are overwhelmingly male. In 2019, 74 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander victims of firearm homicide were male. In comparison, 76 percent of white firearm homicide victims were male. Eighty-nine percent of Black firearm homicide victims were male, as were 81 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native victims.
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