Murder dropped 11.6% from 2022 to 2023, the largest single-year decline in the last 20 years. Property crime was also down overall, while motor vehicle theft and shoplifting rose.
Shouldn't population statistics like this have an adjustment for population growth, like inflation for economic figures? Still a decline. Also would mean that the non-violent numbers like theft have grown even more.
Not sure what you're saying here since that would make the drop larger? The US population is still growing. The US population grew by an estimated ~0.5-0.6% between 2022-2023 and another ~0.5-0.6% between 2023-2024 (the two periods mentioned in the article)
If a stat is X per 100,000 citizens for 20 years ago and then X per 100,000 last year, last year would be greater overall if the population grew. Comparing two recent numbers the error becomes less important, I'm more talking about the headline looking back.
They aren't comparing directly to 20 years ago, they are comparing the delta between years. Saying that it's the largest drop between two consecutive years when you look at the past 2 decades