The FBI on Monday released its annual crime report, built on data submitted by police agencies around the nation. The agency said 9 out of 10 Utah agencies participated in the annual program and numbers in non-participating locations were estimated.

Utah police catalogued 81 homicide incidents in 2020, up from 62 the year before and 54 in 2018. Utah had 43 homicides in 2010, in comparison. The FBI said more than two-thirds of Utah’s homicides in 2020 involved firearms, followed by knives at 10%, and much smaller percentages of incidences involving fists, feet, blunt objects, fire and asphyxiation.

The FBI said violent crime was up nationally by 5.2%, with property crimes continuing a long-term decline, dropping 8.1%. But aggravated assault rose 12.1%, and murder and non-negligent manslaughter jumped 29.4%.

In Ogden, the police department reported four murders in 2020, down two from 2019. The Weber County Sheriff’s Office reported two murders, having had none the year before.

Layton City reported three homicides from last year, the Davis County Sheriff’s Office one and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office two.

Violent crime overall in Ogden rose to 446 from the 388 registered cases in 2019. The Weber sheriff’s office had 111 such crimes in 2019, up from 94 in 2019. Similar trends were logged in Clearfield, Orem and Layton, while the numbers were flat or declined slightly in South Ogden, Roy and Brigham City.

The Salt Lake City Police Department said its violent crime total jumped from 1,450 incidents in 2019 to 1,865 last year. Homicides there were up to 17, compared with 11 in 2019 and 7 in 2010.

But Provo’s crime totals shrunk sharply. There were only eight violent crimes reported in 2020, compared with 135 a year earlier, and Sgt. Nisha King said it’s not a technical glitch or reporting error.

“COVID,” King said, explaining that the pandemic cleared the community of thousands of Brigham Young University students. Likewise with Utah Valley University in neighboring Orem, which meant less “spillover” of crime in Provo from UVU people.

“It was really skewed out,” King said. “Between both of us not having students, it made a huge difference.” Another side effect of COVID in 2020 was a 50% drop in traffic crashes, again because of far fewer students on the road, King said.

Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said population growth explains some of the higher crime totals in suburban areas. “We have seen a slight uptick in some of the more violent and aggressive crimes, but it’s nothing we wouldn’t expect in a growing county like Davis,” Rawlings said Tuesday. “I don’t think we can tie it into COVID, other than domestic violence.”

Police and victims’ advocates attributed increased domestic violence incidents in Utah last year to more people being at home.