Murders in Mexico increased 27 percent in 2017

July 30 (UPI) -- The number of murders in Mexico rose to more than 31,000 in 2017, the highest total since 1990, the National Statistics Institute said Monday.

There were 31,174 murders in Mexico in 2017, equaling a murder rate of 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, the National Statistics Institute said in a press release. The number of murders increased 27 percent from 24,559 in 2016, when the murder rate was 20 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Among those killed were 27,691 Mexicans, 313 foreigners and 3,170 people of unspecified origin.

The data was collected using administrative records of accidental and violent deaths.

The number of murders in Mexico nearly doubled in 2008 as competing drug cartels waged war throughout the country, which the government looked to combat with military and law enforcement.

From 2008 onward, the number of murders regularly increased until 2012, when they began to decrease gradually for a brief period, before shooting up again in 2016.

A report by the British organization Global Witness Mexico saw an increase in killings of land and environmental activists in 2017, rising from 3 to 15.