How to Calculate Murder Per Capita Ratio
Murder per capita is the number of murders per person in a given time in a set area. To calculate, for instance, the murder per capita in Richmond, Virginia for 2009, you need to know how many murders were committed in the area and the average number of people in the city during that year. Turn to local law enforcement agencies to find homicide data numbers, and go through other sources, such as the Census Bureau, to procure figures on population. Once you have the numbers you need, calculating the ratio is easy.
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Instructions
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Determine the population of the city for which you are calculating the murder per capita ratio. This information is usually available either from old census data, tax data or from political polls. For example, assume a city had a population of 356,000 in 2010.
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Determine the number of murders that occurred during the specific time period that correlates with the population figure you found. In the example, assume that 30 murders occurred in the city in 2010.
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Divide the murders by the population. In the example, 30 murders divided by 356,000 people equals a murder per capita of 0.000008426.
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Multiply that result by 100,000. Typically, murder per capita is reported as the number of murders per 100,000 people. In the example, 0.000008426 times 100,000 equals 0.8426 murders per 100,000 people. So the murder per capita ratio, the murder rate, would be recorded as 0.8426 homicides per 100,000 people.
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References
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