Poor people are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than higher income earners regardless of where they live, according to a report from nonprofit group Heartland Alliance on Wednesday. The Chicago-based organization studied the relationship between poverty and crime at both state and national levels for the first time in nearly twenty years, producing an in-depth report that examined federal statistics, national data and interviews with victims. "Between 2015 and 2016, murders in Chicago grew by 58 percent and non-fatal shootings grew by 43 percent," the report said. "Five neighborhoods accounted for nearly half of the increase in murders between 2015 and 2016." Last year, 764 people were murdered in Chicago, and violent crime among the rural poor increased 192 percent more than people earning higher incomes in the same regions. Additionally, Chicago's gun homicide rate was higher than that of any other major US city. Young black men made up the majority of violent crime victims in Illinois and across the country, according to the study. Two-thirds of homicide victims in 2015 were black men aged 15-24, and 28 percent of homicide victims were black men aged 25-44. In Chicago, black men made up nearly 80 percent of murder victims in 2016, even though they comprised just one-third of the metropolitan area's total population. According to the Department of Justice, 93 percent of black homicide victims are killed by members of their own race. Americans earning the lowest incomes (less than $10,000 per household) experienced rates of violent victimhood that were 206 percent higher than people with the highest incomes ($75,000 or more per household). "Poverty and violence often intersect, feed one another, and share root causes," the report said. One-third of Illinois' population of 12.5 million people live below the poverty line, which the Heartland Alliance defines as a family of four living on $48,000 or less.