Macon in the running for 2022 murder rate national championship

With three more murders over the weekend, nearby Macon is now up to 50 homicides so far this calendar year, a relatively astronomical number for an American city of roughly 150,000 people.

A murder rate is based on "number of murders per 100,000 residents." Based on Macon's most recent Census population estimate – 156,762 – as well as the 50 murders, Macon's murder rate for 2022 is now up to 31.9. 

Macon currently is averaging roughly 1.35 murders per week. At that current pace, Macon would finish 2022 with 70 homicides, which would equal a murder rate of 44.7.

So, how would a murder rate of 44.7 rank nationally? More recent data isn't publicly available, as the FBI's "Uniformed Crime Reporting" annual statistics haven't been finalized for 2020 and 2021. Back in 2019, however, a murder rate of 44.7 would've ranked fourth in the nation, one spot ahead of Detroit and one spot below Birmingham.

Out of the 50 homicides in Macon so far this year, a total of 43 have been documented on the www.gunmemorial.org website

For whatever it's worth, a Tweet from July 1 of this year has been cited in numerous national news outlets. The tweet came from a man named Jeff Asher, who identifies himself as the "co-founder of AH Datalytics." According to the tweet, which only covered "major American cities," Macon's murder rate was on pace to be higher than any major American city and roughly four times higher than Chicago and more than three times higher than Atlanta.