What do murder rates tell us about a country? When they are as extreme as Colombia's or South Africa's, do they shape our perceptions of the place?

Crime is rising in South Africa less than nine months before the country hosts the football World Cup. But even with a murder rate dropping some 3% in recent years, South Africa still has one of the higher rates in the world.

So, who are the others? These figures, from the fantastic UNdata give us an insight into the latest figures. But, of course, the results can offer different interpretations. If there's one area where you can find a figure to suit your prejudices this is it. The UN data includes figures from the World Health Organisation, the UN and local police forces. So there is the South Africa murder rate on the summary chart below of 39.5 - and there is also a hugely different WHO figure of 69 murders per 100,000.

So, how did we choose what to summarise here? Where there is a conflict, ie two sets of numbers for the same year, we've put them in this order: Average figures first, then Eurostat (the EU's statistics service) followed by the UN, WHO and then individual country reports. We've tried to be consistent in summarising the figures below - but if you want the full data, go to the Google spreadsheet and find out for yourself.

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DATA: download the full list as a spreadsheet, including sources and alternative measures

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Summary table