Skip to main content
    Shoot Basketballs Not People, home
    DONATE
    ← Philly Safety DataExplore it in the data lab →

    PHILLY SAFETY DATA · FOR GROWN-UPS

    What the scoreboard doesn’t show

    Six patterns hiding in the city’s own list of people shot in Philadelphia: 17,999 people since 2015. Each one is checked against public data, and each one points to something adults can act on.

    City data through Oct 15, 2026. Totals only, never anyone’s story.
    1Kids’ share

    Gun violence fell. It fell slower for kids.

    0%4%8%12%’156.3%’16’17’18’19’20’219.1%’22’23’24’2511.8%8.1%’26*

    Share of people shot who were under 18. *2026 is Jan 1 – Oct 15.

    Show the numbers
    Share of people shot in Philadelphia who were under 18, by year
    YearUnder 18
    20156.3%
    20167.4%
    20177.5%
    20188.2%
    20198%
    20208.7%
    20219.1%
    20229.6%
    20239.6%
    202411.7%
    202511.8%
    2026 (so far)8.1%
    11.8%of people shot in 2025 were kids, up from 6.3% in 2015
    All people shot, 2021→20252,339 → 955
    -59.2%
    Kids under 18, 2021→2025212 → 113
    -46.7%
    Good news in 2026: 51.6% fewer kids shot than on the same days of 2025, and the share is down to 8.1%.
    2After school

    On school days, the hours after the bell matter most

    35.2%of kids shot on school days were shot between 2 and 6 pm
    13.4%on days without school, same hours
    11.7kids shot 2–6 pm per 100 school days, against 5.7 on other days
    SchoolOther2–6 PM12a6a12p2p6p11p

    Shootings per 100 days in each hour, 2022 – Oct 15, 2026. School days follow the School District of Philadelphia calendars. Brighter = more.

    For adults, the busiest hours are late at night on any day. For kids, school days pull the danger into the afternoon, between dismissal and dinner. Those are the hours after-school programs are open.

    Show the numbers
    Kids under 18 shot in each hour, per 100 days
    HourSchool daysOther days
    12 am0.83.4
    1 am0.83.4
    2 am0.61.6
    3 am0.21.2
    4 am0.10.3
    5 am00.1
    6 am00.3
    7 am0.30.1
    8 am0.30.2
    9 am0.30.3
    10 am0.30.7
    11 am1.30.7
    12 pm0.80.7
    1 pm0.71.8
    2 pm2.21.2
    3 pm30.7
    4 pm3.32
    5 pm3.31.8
    6 pm2.33
    7 pm33.2
    8 pm2.44.1
    9 pm2.93.9
    10 pm3.13.2
    11 pm14.8
    3Warm days

    A surprise warm day brings more shootings

    2018 – Oct 15, 2026, 3,210 days. Each day is compared with the average for its own month, so this is not just “summer.” Weather: Open-Meteo (ERA5).

    Show the numbers
    Shootings compared with the average for the same month
    Day wasShootings vs. usual
    8°F+ colder than usual-10.5%
    3–8°F colder-6.4%
    About usual+2%
    3–8°F warmer+2%
    8°F+ warmer than usual+12%
    +12%shootings on days 8°F or more warmer than usual for the month (-10.5% on days 8°F colder)
    Not the heat waves you’d guess. Outside May–September, unusually warm days run +16.8%. In summer, the same jump is only +1.1%. A mild day in March or October likely brings everyone outside at once.

    This is a link, not a cause, and a weak one day to day. It helps plan outreach: the first warm weekend of spring is a day to be out there.

    4A few blocks

    Half of the people shot were shot on 6% of the city’s blocks

    50% of people shot since 2015 were shot on 6% of the city’s blocks.

    Each square is 1% of Philadelphia’s 26,039 street blocks (City street centerline). Orange: the blocks where that share of people shot were shot. Grey: any shooting. Outline: none.

    Show the numbers
    Share of Philadelphia's street blocks where people were shot, since 2015
    Share of people shotShare of blocks
    25%1.8%
    50%6%
    75%13.7%
    Any shooting at all30.9%
    69.1%of the city’s blocks have had no shooting at all since 2015

    Hot blocks cool down

    The 260 hottest blocks of 2015–19 held 20.8% of people shot then, and 8.4% five years later. Hot spots move around a neighborhood, so help has to follow people, not just addresses.

    51937 lines

    Areas marked C and D in 1937 still see the most shootings

    In 1937 a federal agency, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, graded Philadelphia’s neighborhoods for mortgage risk. Areas with Black and immigrant families were graded C or D (“hazardous”) and outlined in red: “redlined.” Banks followed the map for decades.

    HOLC map: Mapping Inequality, University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Shapes simplified.

    All four gradesAreas graded C or D are home to 49.8% of residents and saw 75.7% of people shot since 2015: 1.46 per 1,000 residents a year, 2.6× the 0.57 in areas graded A or B.

    PEOPLE SHOT PER 1,000 RESIDENTS A YEAR

    A · “Best”0.43
    B · “Still desirable”0.58
    C · “Definitely declining”1.52
    D · “Hazardous” (redlined)1.43
    Not graded in 19370.33

    C areas run a little above D, so the line that holds is between C and D together and A and B together: 2.6× the rate per resident.

    75.7%of people shot since 2015 were shot in areas graded C or D in 1937, home to 49.8% of residents today
    Show the numbers
    1937 grades: residents today and people shot since 2015
    1937 gradeResidents todayPeople shotPer 1,000 a year
    A2.9%1.3%0.43
    B26.5%15.9%0.58
    C18.5%29.1%1.52
    D31.3%46.6%1.43
    Not graded20.8%7.1%0.33

    Who lives there now

    Grade A
    Grade B
    Grade C
    Grade D
    Not graded

    The lines track place more than race today: many old D areas are now as white as they are Black, after decades of change. What carried forward is the disinvestment, in vacant lots, aging housing and fewer jobs. Research finds firearm injury is highest in the old red zones even after accounting for 1940 conditions (Jacoby et al., 2018).

    6Race

    Black Philadelphians carry most of the harm

    12×the rate for Black residents compared with white residents, 2023–25
    13.8×the same gap for kids under 18
    80.5%of people shot were Black; Black residents are 38.3% of the city
    0100200300Black 127Latino 47white 10’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25

    People shot per 100,000 residents each year. Population: Census ACS 2020–24. Race and Latino status as recorded by police.

    Show the numbers
    People shot per 100,000 residents each year
    YearBlackLatinowhite
    20151736211
    20161776714
    20171676813
    20181996711
    20192007511
    20203109424
    20213238330
    202229013428
    202321310021
    2024143669
    20251274710
    Every group fell since 2021. Black residents −61%, white residents −66%, Latino residents −44%. The gap is still wide.

    These gaps follow where decades of disinvestment landed, not anything about anyone’s race. Closing them means investing in the same places.

    What this means

    SBNP works in the hours and places this data points to

    After the bell

    After-school programs at Steel and Wright elementary schools, and the Upstream League: basketball for violence prevention, funded by a three-year PCCD grant.

    See the data

    When everyone is outside

    Rise Up Summer Camp, the Finley summer league and Hoop Bus days keep kids on supervised courts through the warm months.

    See the data

    In the neighborhoods

    In 2026: 1,887 uniforms donated to schools, teams and leagues, 300 students given back-to-school support, and 13 tournaments and community events.

    See the data

    Programs and 2026 figures as reported by SBNP.

    Keep kids on the court between 2 and 6 pm

    $50 keeps one young person in an after-school program for a month.

    DONATEVOLUNTEER

    Cite or share this page

    Shoot Basketballs NOT People (SBNP). “A deeper look: Philly Safety Data for grown-ups.” joinsbnp.org, city data through Oct 15, 2026. Data: City of Philadelphia, Shooting Victims (OpenDataPhilly). https://joinsbnp.org/by-the-numbers/deeper-look

    Download the one-page summary (PDF)

    For funders, reporters and policymakers. Each chapter above also has a “Share this stat” button.

    How we got these numbers

    Every row of the City of Philadelphia’s shooting-victims list from Jan 1, 2015 to Oct 15, 2026 counts, the same as the kids’ page. We publish totals only, and hide any count under 5 when it is split by place, age or race. These are patterns, not causes, and small numbers move around from year to year.