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Does Atlanta have the 'biggest homicide rate problem' in nation, as new study says? | VERIFY

WalletHub determined the score based on three different metrics.

ATLANTA — Atlanta's homicide rate ranks among the worst in the country, at least according to a recent study from the website WalletHub.

The study compared 45 of the nation's largest cities based on per capita homicides in the fourth quarter of 2022, as well as comparing that number to the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2020.

All three of those scores were factored in to determine WalletHub's final ranking of cities.

But is that assessment accurate? By WalleHub's metrics, Atlanta ranks at the top of the list for "biggest homicide problems."

The question

Does Atlanta have the biggest homicide rate in the country?

Answer

 

This needs context.

Sources

What we found

It's important to note that WalletHub only looked at the final few months 2022, 2021, and 2020 in its study. There was also no explanation as to why they only looked at that specific time of the year.

When it comes to only the number of homicides per capita for the last fourth of 2022, Atlanta came up as the 5th highest in the nation.

When Wallethub compared those numbers to where they stood in 2021, they found Atlanta had the highest increase in homicides per capita out all 45 major cities.

And when 2022's numbers were compared to where they were two years earlier, Atlanta ranked as having the fourth-highest increase.

However, all this really indicates is the increase of homicides in the last three months of the year

Here's a look at the yearly homicide numbers reported by APD since 2019 - a year before the pandemic took place. 

  • 2019 --  95 homicides
  • 2020 -- 152 homicides
  • 2021 -- 159 homicides
  • 2022 -- 170 homicides

Based on Atlanta Police crime reports, there were a little more than 30 murders in Atlanta in October, November and December in 2021. That number jumped to nearly 50 for that same time period in 2022, an increase in the range of 30-35%.

So, we can VERIFY that while WalletHub's study isn't wrong, it only focuses on the homicide rate for a specific time of the year, not overall from year to year.

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