The popular tourism destinations of Tulum, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo and San Miguel de Allende are among Mexico’s 50 most violent municipalities based on their per capita homicide rates between September 2024 and August 2025.
Other municipalities that make the “50 most violent” list include Manzanillo, Culiacán, Colima, Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez.
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The crime data website elcri.men compiles official data and uses it to rank municipalities and states based on their per capita homicide rates.
The latest “50 most violent municipalities” list shows that Huajicori, Nayarit, ranks first with a homicide rate of 278 per 100,000 people in the 12 months between September 2024 and August 2025.
Located in northern Nayarit on the border with both Sinaloa and Durango, Huajicori recorded 34 murders in the year to Aug. 30, according to elcri.men. The municipality has a population of just over 12,000.
Tulum, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo and San Miguel de Allende are popular tourism destinations for Mexican and international tourists, and foreigners live in each of the municipalities.
It is rare for tourists and foreign residents to be affected by violence in the four aforesaid destinations, as most of it is related to organized crime or among rival groups. That said, Mexico News Daily believes it is important that visitors and locals are aware of the security situation, as shown by the official homicide data compiled by elcri.men.
Tulum
The Caribbean coast municipality of Tulum, Quintana Roo, ranks as Mexico’s 20th most violent municipality with a homicide rate of 83.9 per 100,000 residents in the 12 months to Aug. 30.
Tulum, located about 130 kilometers south of Cancún, recorded 46 homicides in the period. The municipality has a population of just under 55,000, according to elcri.men.
Among the homicide victims in Tulum over the past year were two people who were killed in an armed attack at a bar in August.
Foreigners have been killed in Tulum, including in an armed attack that occurred at a beach club in February 2024 and in a shooting in October 2021.
Acapulco
The Pacific coast city of Acapulco, Guerrero, ranks as Mexico’s 34th most violent municipality with 71 homicides per 100,000 residents in the year to Aug. 30.
Described as “Mexico’s murder capital” by The Washington Post in 2017, Acapulco recorded 560 homicides between September 2024 and August 2025, more than 12 times the number in Tulum. Acapulco’s population is 788,560, according to elcri.men.
In a period of 24 hours in early September, eight people were killed in the city, which was once a glamorous vacation destination for Hollywood royalty and “the rich and famous.”
Zihuatanejo
Also located on the Pacific coast of Guerrero, Zihuatanejo de Azueta ranks as Mexico’s 41st most violent municipality with 61.3 homicides per 100,000 people in the year to Aug. 30.
Zihuatanejo, which has an active expat community, recorded 79 murders between September 2024 and August 2025. The municipality has a population of just under 129,000, according to elcri.men.
Among the murder victims in the municipality of Zihuatanejo over the past year was the son of a business leader from Michoacán, who in late August was found dead in a vehicle that was abandoned near the community of El Posquelite.
San Miguel de Allende
Located in the Bajío region state of Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende ranks as Mexico’s 50th most violent municipality with 49.3 homicides per 100,000 people in the 12 months to Aug. 30.
San Miguel, which has long been home to a sizable community of foreigners, recorded 88 homicides between September 2024 and August 2025. The population of the municipality is 178,576, according to elcri.men.
Among the homicide victims in San Miguel de Allende over the past year were three people who were shot during a religious event in August. Mayor Mauricio Trejo Pureco said that the attack was targeted at three people with significant criminal records. He said that 19 people were wounded in the attack and 16 of them were “good people.”
San Miguel de Allende is one of nine Guanajuato municipalities on the “50 most violent” list compiled by elcri.men.
Guanajuato has been Mexico’s most violent state in recent years based on total homicides.
The 10 most violent municipalities
Mexico’s 10 most violent municipalities based on their per capita homicide rates between September 2024 and August 2025 are as follows:
- Huajicori, Nayarit: 278 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Santiago Jamiltepec: 171.5 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Manzanillo, Colima: 143.4 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Huitzilac, Morelos: 132.3 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Tarimoro, Guanajuato: 124.5 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Salvatierra, Guanajuato: 121.4 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Puente de Ixtla, Morelos: 117.9 homicides per 100,000 people.
- San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora: 114 homicides per 100,000 people.
- Elota, Sinaloa: 105.1 homicides per 100,000 people
- Matías Romero Avedaño, Oaxaca: 103.7 homicides per 100,000 people.
Among the other municipalities on the “50 most violent” list are Culiacán, Sinaloa (17th); Colima, Colima (21st); Tecate, Baja California (23rd); Celaya, Guanajuato (35th); Tijuana, Baja California (46th); and Juárez, Chihuahua (49th).
Mexico’s most violent states
Based on homicides per capita, Colima was Mexico’s most violent state between September 2024 and August 2025. The small Pacific coast state recorded 89.2 homicides per 100,000 people, according to elcri.men.
Morelos ranked as the second most violent state with 60 homicides per 100,000 people, followed by Sinaloa (59), Chihuahua (47.8) and Guanajuato (47.6).
Based on total homicides, Guanajuato was the most violent state in the first nine months of 2025. Data presented by the federal government on Tuesday shows that the Bajío region state recorded 2,084 homicides between January and September, accounting for 11.3% of the national murder total.
Ranking second to fifth for total homicides in the period were Chihuahua, Baja California, Sinaloa and México state.
Homicides across Mexico declined almost 25% annually in the first nine months of 2025, according to data presented on Tuesday by Marcela Figueroa Franco, head of the National Public Security System.
Mexico News Daily
