Natalie Neysa Alund

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Among the country's 50 largest cities, Nashville ranked second last year for the highest percentage increase in murders, according to findings recently released by the FBI and the Washington Post.

The findings show Nashville's criminal homicide rate rose 83 percent last year — from 41 in 2014 to 75.

The city with the highest percentage increase in homicides last year was Cleveland, whose numbers nearly doubled from 63 in 2014 to 120 — a 90.5 percent increase.

Milwaukee was third followed by Denver, with 73 and 65 percent increases.

Boston and Austin both had a 28 percent decrease in their cities' murder rates — the lowest decrease on the list.

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Nashville's total criminal homicides marked the highest in the city since 2009, when there were 80 killings.

The all-time high in the city was 112 in 1997.

The city's annual homicide numbers hit historic lows in 2013 and 2014. There were 41 criminal homicides in 2014, down two from 2013 and four fewer than the previous low in 1963 — the year the Metro Nashville government was created.

Of the 75 criminal homicides last year, 20 of the victims were teenagers or younger — the highest number of youth deaths to hit Nashville in the past decade. Much of the city's violence played out among youths as acts of brutal retaliation for squabbles that police said were once settled by punches instead of bullets.

According to the Washington Post's Wonkblog findings, about 770 more people were killed in major cities last year than the year before — the worst annual change since 1990.

Students brainstorm how to curtail Nashville violence

Wonkblog said it collected the 2015 homicide data from individual police departments or from news sources that cited those departments. Homicide data for earlier years came from the FBI.

The study found the number of homicides in the country's 50 largest cities rose nearly 17 percent last year, the report reads.

Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at 615-259-8072. Follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

Youth violence surged in Nashville in 2015

Nashville criminal homicides by year:

2015: 75

2014: 41

2013: 40

2012: 62

2011: 51

2010: 60

2009: 80

2008: 74

2007: 73

2006: 81

2005: 97

By the numbers

Males: 59

Females: 16

Victims younger than the age of 24: 50 percent

Cases cleared: 41

Unsolved cases: 34

* Source: Metro Nashville Police Department