Comparing Violence in Iraq to American Cities

I've heard on more than one occasion that the level of violence in Iraq is no worse than an American city such as Washington, DC or Los Angeles. So I decided to look into the matter.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, the number of murders committed in the United States in 2004, was 16,137 or a murder rate of 5.5 for every 100,000 people.

As reported in an AP news report in today's Arizona Republic, there were 1,500 violent deaths in the Baghdad area last month, for an annualized number of 18,000 violent deaths. According to wikipedia, the estimated population in the entire country of Iraq is 26,783,383. That leaves Iraq's murder (violent death) rate at about 67.21, or about 12 times as high as the overall murder rate of the United States.

But hey, maybe I don't know something about LA or DC so I checked them out on infoplease. The most current year is from 2003.

Interestingly enough, there are cities in the United States where the murder rates are very high. New Orleans (57.7), Washington DC (44.0), Detroit (39.4), and Baltimore (41.9). LA comes in at a relatively peaceful rate of 13.4 as compared to Phoenix, my hometown, at 17.2.

To be fair to the these fine metropolitan areas, I have calculated Baghdad's murder (violent death) rate using the 2005 estimated population of 7,400,000 for a rate of 243.24 murders per 100,000 residents. That's over four times as murderous as our most murder-rific city.

I think there be a little exaggeration going on.