Five years ago, Columbus had the deadliest year in its history. In 2021, police counted 66 murders, and 70 people died by homicide.

Last year, police counted 27 murders. That's a drop of about 60%.

By the Columbus Police Department's own numbers, the city is safer than it was five years ago, at least when it comes to the most serious crimes. But not every number is going down, and if you look up Columbus on the FBI's crime website, you'll find numbers that don't add up.

Here's what the numbers show.

Murders: down by more than half

The decline hasn't been a straight line. Murders jumped in 2023 before falling again. But 2025 had the fewest murders of any year on this list, and 2026 is on pace to be lower still: 12 murders through Oct. 6, compared with 23 at the same point last year.

The 2021 figure comes from the department's year-end report, as reported by WRBL. The 2022-2026 figures come from the department's online crime report. Counting all homicides, including self-defense and manslaughter, the totals were 70 in 2021, 46 in 2022, 57 in 2023, 48 in 2024 and 31 in 2025.

2025 vs. 2024: down in almost every category

Columbus police reported these numbers to City Council for 2025:

Rape was the only serious crime that went up. A deputy chief told the Ledger-Enquirer that rape is hard for any police agency to prevent because most happen out of public view.

2026 so far: violent crime down, theft up

Through Oct. 6, compared with the same period of 2025:

• Murder: 12, down from 23
• Burglary: 279, down from 385
• Auto theft: 261, down from 469
• Robbery: 120, about the same as last year's 122
• Aggravated assault: 360, about the same as last year's 362
• Rape: 40, up from 34
• Larceny (theft): 4,213, up from 3,922

Because theft is by far the most common crime, the overall count is almost flat: 5,285 serious crimes this year, compared with 5,317 at this point last year. Murders, burglaries and car thefts are way down. Thefts, which include shoplifting, are up.

The longer view: lowest in at least a decade

In July, the department's Criminal Intelligence Unit compared the first six and a half months of every year since 2016. It counted murder, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft (not theft or rape). In 2026, Columbus had 678 of those crimes, the fewest in at least 10 years. The same period had 1,656 in 2022 and 2,180 in 2017, the highest year in the report.

Why we didn't use the FBI's numbers

The FBI publishes crime numbers for every police department that reports to it, and many people look up their city there. For Columbus, those numbers are badly incomplete.

The FBI's Crime Data Explorer shows just 9 homicides in Columbus in 2021. Local police and news reports counted 70. It shows 22 in 2022, when police counted 37 murders.

The likely reason: the FBI switched to a new national reporting system around 2021, and many departments didn't send complete data during the changeover. Whatever the cause, the FBI's Columbus numbers for those years can't be used to measure how crime has changed. That also means you can't fairly compare Columbus with Savannah, Augusta or Macon using the FBI's website, so we haven't.

If you see a website claim Columbus had "15 murders" or crime "fell 26%," check where the number came from. Many crime-ranking sites pull straight from the FBI's data.

What this doesn't tell you

• These are reported crimes. Crimes that never get reported to police, which is common with theft and sexual assault, aren't counted.
• Your neighborhood may be different. Citywide numbers can go down while one area has a rough year.
• Numbers aren't the whole story. A string of shootings this spring and summer left families grieving even as the totals fell.

See the numbers yourself

The Columbus Police Department posts a weekly crime report at columbusga.gov/police, under "Reports" and then "Weekly Compliancy Reports." It shows homicides by year and this year's serious crimes compared with last year's.