The most violent region in the world is the Americas.

A total of 2.2 million homicides were committed between 1995 and 2012. That means that for the last 17 years, 15 people were killed every hour. And out of every two people killed, one was either Brazilian or Mexican.

The following interactive chart shows the homicide rates per 100,000 people in the Americas over a course of 14 years. The countries are ranked in order from highest to lowest for each year. Hover over each country with your mouse to compare their homicide statistics.

Homicide Rates in the Americas Per 100,000 People

An interesting note is Colombia and Venezuela. Colombia went from the country with the second highest homicide rate in 1998 to the eighth ranking in 2012, cutting its homicide rate by almost half of what it used to be. On the other hand, Venezuela almost tripled its homicide rate since 1998, with a total of 56 in 2012, up from 19.4 in 1998.