ST. PAUL (AP) - Newly released statistics show that the crime rate in Minnesota has dropped to its lowest level in 50 years.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension collects the data.

The agency looks at instances of homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson and two categories of human trafficking.

The agency's report found that overall, those crimes occur about half as often now as they did through the late 1980s and 1990s.

More recently, the report shows a roughly 4 percent decline in crime between 2015 and 2016.

The number of murders statewide dropped from 130 in 2015 to 100 in 2016, about a 23 percent decline. Violent crime, rape and major assaults have increased by less than 1 percent since 2015.

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