One of the benefits of having a database that now spans a full decade of homicides—and currently includes 380 cases—is that I can start to ask questions that only long-term data might help to answer. Some of these questions are simple, some are more detailed, and some are probably only interesting to me. One of the straightforward ones I looked at recently was the average age of victims each year. Of the 380 cases, I have age data for 365 individuals, or 96%):
(SIDE NOTE: Please look at the methodology page of the Barbados Homicide Website to learn more about the methodology behind my database).
Here are the averages:
| Year | Average Age of Victim (Years) |
| 2015 | 34.8 |
| 2016 | 36.8 |
| 2017 | 37.4 |
| 2018 | 38.4 |
| 2019 | 38.2 |
| 2020 | 34.2 |
| 2021 | 36.7 |
| 2022 | 34.5 |
| 2023 | 32.3 |
| 2024 | 33.9 |
| 2025 (up to November) | 29.6 |
The numbers rise gradually from 2015 through 2019, then shift up and down over the following years, with 2025 showing the lowest average age in the dataset so far (keep in mind that 2025 only includes up to November). As a reminder, the data here is drawn from my own records of 380 cases, so it’s not official, but it shows the yearly averages in a simple, straightforward way.
Thanks Amit. I find this interesting as well. For the solved cases could you compare this data with the average age of the perpetrators? My expectation is a lot younger and may be instructive to see by how much.
Very interesting. I thought the age would be much lower since victims of violent crimes tend to be those in the youth population.