Belize murder rate to increase 20% in 2014

With the year nearly over, Belize's murder rate is likely to increase approximately 20% in 2014.

Official statistics compiled up to yesterday show that there have been 120 murders so far for 2014. That is compared to 99 in 2013. That puts Belize's murder rate per hundred thousand at 33.6 - which will still likely put this country in the global top ten for murder rates - except this time closer to ten than one.

The highest one year total in terms of the number of homicides was in 2012 when the country recorded 145. While overall crime increased in 2014, arrests decreased rather significantly.

In terms of homicide rates, Belize will be ahead of Honduras and El Salvador but slightly worse than Guatemala. Given the size of Belize's population, however, I don't think that it is really fare to compare it to neighboring countries with millions of people.