With 43 murders, the month of May was the deadliest May in Baltimore’s history and the third deadliest month in the city’s history. But that number doesn’t tell the whole story.
May 2015 is the tied with Aug. 1990 for the deadliest month since 1972 with 42 homicides. http://t.co/N7dfGHwRRh pic.twitter.com/bHxvj3dh4I
— Kalani (@kalanigordon) May 31, 2015
The city of Chicago is often thought of as one of the most dangerous cities in the country – they did suffer 48 homicides in the month of May. But when you look past raw numbers you begin to see just how much more dangerous it is to live in Baltimore than Chicago.
The city had almost exactly 100,000 more residents in 1990 @kalanigordon @baltimoresun Nearly 300G more in 1972
— Dan Rodricks (@DanRodricks) May 31, 2015
The 48 murders in Chicago are disturbing, but the city has a population of 2.7 million people. In the month of May, there was one murder for every 56,250 Chicagoans. Meanwhile in Baltimore, a city with a population of only 622,000, their 43 murders puts them at a rate of one murder for every 14,465 residents.
Residents of Baltimore were 3.8 times more likely to be murdered than residents of Chicago in the month of May.