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Charted: Rising Mass Shootings in America

by Freny Fernandes
This post is by Freny Fernandes from Visual Capitalist

Rising mass shootings in the US

Charted: Rising Mass Shootings in America

The United States of America has a new fatal epidemic on its hands. But it’s not a new virus or disease; it’s the skyrocketing number of mass shootings.

On January 21, 2023, a gunman opened fire on a group celebrating the Lunar New Year in California, killing 10 and injuring 10 others.

This graphic by Pablo Alvarez used data from the Gun Violence Archive to track the number of mass shootings in the U.S. over the past eight years and highlight the states that have witnessed the worst of it.

U.S. Mass Shootings From 2014‒2022

While gun violence has been a hot topic in the U.S. for many years, mass shootings are now visibly on the rise. In fact, they have almost doubled post-pandemic.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings comprise incidents where four or more people (not including the shooter) are shot at the same time and in the same location.

YearNumber of Mass ShootingsKilledInjured
20226476732700
20216907042827
20206105132540
20194174651712
20183363721330
20173484411807
20163834531539
20153363691337
20142732751086

Between 2020 and 2022, the U.S. saw 1,947 mass shootings. These tragic incidents killed 1890 people and left over 8,000 others injured.

Las Vegas witnessed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history on November 1, 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of (Read more...)

Visualizing Two Decades of Reported Hate Crimes in the U.S.

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

Visualizing Two Decades of Reported Hate Crimes in the U.S.

Across the U.S., thousands of hate crimes are committed each year, with many different motivating biases.

In 2020 alone, more than 10,000 unique hate crime incidents were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—and it’s likely that thousands more were committed that didn’t get reported to law enforcement.

What are the most commonly reported motivating biases, and how have hate crime rates evolved over the years? This graphic uses data from the FBI to visualize two decades of reported hate crime incidents across America.

What is Considered a Hate Crime?

Before diving in, it’s important to determine what constitutes a hate crime.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a hate crime is a crime that’s “committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.”

These types of crimes are a threat to society, as they have a broader impact on communities than other types of crimes do. This is because hate crimes can foster fear and intimidate large groups of people or marginalized communities, making them feel unwelcome, unsafe, or othered.

Hate Crimes on the Rise

Hate crimes have been rising across the U.S. in nearly every year since 2014. By 2020, reported crimes across America reached record-level highs not seen in over two decades.

YearNumber of Reported Incidents% Change (y-o-y)
2001973018.4%
20027485-23.1%
200375450.8%
20047685 (Read more...)