Homicide Victims Report 2023 and Historical NZ Murder Rate Report 1926-2023

Homicide Victims Report 2023 (PDF 2MB)

A Summary of Statistics about Victims of Murder, Manslaughter, and Infanticide

Report at a glance:

• Between 2007 – 2022 there were 1,174 people killed by homicide (i.e., murder and manslaughter offences).
• Māori and European accounted for approximately a third each of homicide victims.
• Males represented 66 percent of all victims.
• The lowest annual homicide figure of 47 was in 2017.
• About three quarters of all homicides were murders.
• Of all family-linked homicide victims, 43% were male and 57% were female.
• Around 15% of homicides were committed by a current or ex-partner – 75% of these victims were female.
• Children under the age of five made up 10 percent of homicide victims.

Provisionally, 86 homicide victimisations are reported for 2023.

Note: Driving causing death and Aiding suicide offences are currently not included in this report.

Historical NZ Murder Rate Report 1926-2023 (PDF 180KB)

The table shows Murder offences collated from existing electronic and microfiche data from previous Police annual reports and crime statistics and the current statistics on Homicide Victims.