UPDATE: UCR data for more recent years are also available by clicking here.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released its Uniform Crime Report for 2000. The FBI said in a press release that there was virtually no change in the Crime Index in 2000 compared to the 1999 figures.

The Crime Index (composed of crimes in seven categories, see below) decreased 0.2 percent in 2000, the smallest year-to-year decrease in volume since 1991. Both violent and property crime experienced marginal declines in volume when compared to the 1999 volume reported the Bureau.

According to the report, an estimated 11.6 million offenses were reported to law enforcement agencies across the Nation in 2000. This average of 4,124.0 crimes for every 100,000 inhabitants is 3.3 percent less than the 1999 rate, 18.9 percent less than the 1996 rate, and 30.1 percent less than the crime rate recorded in 1991. The report only covers crimes reported to law enforcement agencies (approximately 17,000 agencies, representing 94% of the U.S. population supplied data for the 2000 report).

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program was initiated in 1929 to collect information on serious crimes in the following categories:

• homicide
• forcible rape
• robbery
• aggravated assault
• burglary
• larceny
• theft
• motor vehicle theft
• arson

Additionally, the Program collects information on hate crimes and on persons arrested for twenty-two other less serious crime categories. Hate crime offenses cover incidents motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity/national origin.