The list of countries by homicide rate is derived from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data, and is expressed in number of deaths per 100,000 population per year. For example, a homicide rate of 30 out of 100,000 is presented in the table as "30", and corresponds to 0.03% of the population dying by homicide. The reliability of underlying national murder rate data may vary. Only UNODC-vetted data is used in the main table to maintain consistency. In some cases, it may not be as up to date as other sources.

Homicide rates may be under-reported for political reasons.

A study undertaken by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development estimated that there were approximately 490,000 intentional homicides globally in 2004, for a rate of 7.6 per 100,000. UNODC calculated a global estimated rate of 6.9 per 100,000 in 2010; 6.2 per 100,000 in 2012; 6.1 per 100,000 in 2017; and a rate of 5.61 per 100,000 for 2022.