Mérida Crime Statistics 2026: The Actual Numbers

What are Mérida's headline crime numbers for 2026?

These five statistics answer most questions, shown side by side with the national figures:

The companion page, the Mérida safety guide, covers what these numbers mean day to day: neighborhoods, women's safety, and night life.

How many homicides does Yucatán have?

Yucatán has so few homicides that individual cases make statewide news. This is the recent series for the whole state (population ≈2.4 million):

For scale, seven states (Guanajuato, Chihuahua, Baja California, Sinaloa, Estado de México, Guerrero and Michoacán) account for about half of all homicide cases nationally. Yucatán sits at the opposite end of that distribution, which is the statistical basis for its Level 1 U.S. advisory.

What crimes are rising in Mérida?

Reported crime is rising, mostly in non-violent categories. Yucatán's overall crime incidence grew about 29% in 2025, its highest level in four years, with the growth concentrated in non-violent, high-volume offenses: theft, fraud (much of it online), and family and property disputes. Officials also reported worrying increases in femicide and sexual offenses in 2025, from a small base but moving the wrong way.

For residents, violent crime against strangers remains rare by any North American standard. Petty theft does happen (don't leave phones on café tables), and online marketplace fraud is the scam you're most likely to meet (see the wire-transfer rules in the renting guide).

How does Mérida compare with other Mexican cities?

On perception, INEGI's national urban-security survey (ENSU) puts Mérida among the 15 cities with the lowest sense of insecurity in Mexico: 38.2% of residents feel unsafe versus a 59.8% national average, a gap of over 21 points. Earlier in 2026 the figure dipped as low as 33.7%. Private security indexes point the same way, and Mérida routinely tops city rankings (a recent index scored it 93/100, grade A, first place among 51 cities).

Compared with the cities expats usually consider, Mérida's homicide and violent-crime indicators run far below Cancún or Playa del Carmen (Quintana Roo carries a U.S. Level 2 advisory) and dramatically below central and northern metros. The neighborhoods guide maps this neighborhood by neighborhood, and Mérida vs Playa del Carmen compares the two cities.

Where does this data come from, and how should you read it?

The data comes from three official sources: SESNSP (Mexico's national public-security secretariat, which publishes monthly crime-incidence files by state, including the homicide counts above), INEGI's ENSU (a quarterly survey of how safe residents feel), and the U.S. State Department advisory (a composite judgment updated through the year). Two caveats apply to all Mexican crime data. Incidence counts measure reported crime, and Mexico's unreported rate (the cifra negra) is high everywhere, Yucatán included. City-level breakdowns also lag state-level ones. This page pairs hard counts with the perception survey because agreement between the two, as in Mérida's case, makes the picture more reliable. Data verified August 2026. We re-check it when SESNSP publishes new figures.