Almost 500,000 South Africans have been murdered since 1994, according to findings from the 2017 South Africa Survey released by the IRR.

In its 2017 South Africa Survey‚ the IRR noted that approximately 445,835 murders had been recorded in the country between April 1994 and March 2016.

IRR crime analyst Kerwin Lebone said: “South Africans live with horrific levels of violent crime. While the murder rate has fallen since 1994, at 31.9 per 100 000 people, it remains one of the highest in the world.”

According to Lebone, South Africa’s murder rate is:

almost 29 times higher than that in Australia, which is at 1.1 per 100 000 people.

almost 30 times higher than that in the United Kingdom, and 45 times higher than that in Germany, which are at 1.0 and 0.7 per 100 000 people respectively.

almost nine times higher than that in the United States of America, which is at 3.8 per 100 000 people.

Murder affects the most vulnerable people in South Africa’s society with the IRR Survey showing that 884 children were murdered in 2015/2016. Over the past decade almost 10,000 children have been murdered, the IRR said.

Lebone added that South Africa’s murder crisis is so serious that some South Africans are more likely to be murdered than the residents of many terror-affected countries.

SAPS data published in September last year showed that 18 673 murders were committed in the country, up from 17 805 in 2015.

Read: South Africa crime stats 2016: everything you need to know