List of countries with the most serial killers leaves people shocked

A list has been published showing which countries have the most documented serial killers.

It might seem like a fairly simple question, but there is more to it than you might think, starting with how you might go about defining who does and doesn't count as a serial killer.

Of course, this doesn't account for the serial killers who are still large.

The current definition for a serial killer is someone who murders three or more people. The murders also have to take place over more than a month and with a significant amount of time between them.

So for example, a mass shooter who kills 10 people in one day wouldn't count as a serial killer because the killings weren't far enough apart.

The list doesn't account for population, but instead goes from the outright number of serial killers in a country. That said, the country with the dubious honour of the top spot is so far ahead it would be unlikely to make much difference.

So, which country is in the top spot?

Bettmann / Contributor / Getty

It will probably come as little surprise that it is of course the United States of America, with a shocking 3,204 documented serial killers. Not only is that the top spot, it's 2,000 more than every other country on the list combined.

And a reminder that, due to the criteria of what constitutes a serial killer, this isn't including mass shooters. Yikes.

Even accounting for population and going per 100,000 people, the US is miles ahead of the next on the list, which is England with 166 documented serial killers. England, with a population of just under 56 million, has around 0.29 serial killers per 100,000 people, while the US with its population of just under 332 million has 0.96 serial killers per 100,000 people, more than three times the UK.

Handout / Getty

There are some surprise entries on the list.

Scotland just comes in, with 15 serial killers or around 0.27 per 100,000 people. India came in at nine with 80 serial killers, although the video suggest India - and other Asian countries - could have more if 'undocumented entries' were included.

Perhaps a surprise omission from the list is Colombia, the country which has the top two most prolific known serial killers. These are Luis Garavito, who had 193 proven victims, and Pedro Lopez who had 110 proven victims.

The top five list of countries goes from the US with 3,204, then England, 166, South Africa, 117, Canada with 106, Italy with 97, and Japan with 96.

Even accounting for a place's capacity to document serial killers, that's a pretty huge difference.