Murder no longer among top causes of death in US She said that between 2002 and 2008 the murder rate had hovered at around six per cent but is now down to 5.3. The figure for 2001 was 7.1 as more than 3,000 victims of the September 11 attacks were included in the nation's murder count. The rates of murder, especially in major American cities has fallen steadily in the last two decades. Between 1990 and 2010, homicides dropped by 76 per cent in New York, by 70 per cent in Los Angeles and by 49 per cent in Chicago. New York still has the highest number of murders in the United States, with police tallying 536 in 2010. Homicide was replaced in the list of death causes by pneumonitis, a respiratory illness that mainly affects people aged 75 and over. "Given where we are in the life cycle, with the Baby Boom generation aging and more vulnerable to disease, the population generally is at less risk of homicide," Dr James Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, told USA Today. Heart disease and cancer were ranked at the top of the list, accounting for almost half 2.4 million deaths in the US in 2010, while accidents were ranked fifth and suicide at number 10. The National Vital Statistics Report found that a child born in 2010 was likely to live to 78 years and eight months, a month longer than a child born in 2009. It also found that infant mortality was at 6.14 deaths for every 1,000 births, the lowest rate ever recorded in the United States. "Overall this is good news for Americans and it would seem to indicate good news for people's health and for the state of society" Ms Murphy said.