Citywide crime dropped in 2003 at a significantly faster rate than the nationwide decline in crime, according to FBI statistics released yesterday.

The New York City crime rate dropped 5.8% last year, compared to a decline of 0.5% across the country, according to the FBI report. City officials pointed to anticrime initiatives as crucial factors in dragging down overall crime.

The annual FBI report indicates that nationwide, every type of violent crime fell last year, with one notable exception: Murders were up for the fourth straight year. In 2003, New York City kept pace with the national 1.7% surge in murders. Citing the overall decline in crime, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that the safest big city in America keeps getting safer.

“We are driving crime down almost 12 times faster than the rest of the country,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “The crime rate is down to levels not seen since the 1960s, and we have made the streets safer and more welcoming for residents, visitors, and businesses.”

Violent crime dropped 6.9% in the city, more than double the nationwide decline of 3%, according to FBI statistics. Citywide property crime dropped 5.4%, dwarfing the national crime decrease of 0.2%.

Mr. Bloomberg cited the police department’s anti-crime and quality-of-life efforts, implemented along with antiterrorism efforts at the same time.

“Through Operation Impact, we’ve continued to target crime in an increasingly focused way, shifting resources as conditions require,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, referring to the department’s method of ramping up the number of patrol officers in troubled neighborhoods. “This is perhaps the single most important ingredient in the continuing downward spiral in crime. We are encouraged that the state has adopted the NYPD model to apply to other localities.”

With 2,917 crimes per 100,000 people in 2003, the city ranks 210th out of 229 cities with more than 100,000 people.

The FBI reported the following percentage declines for the city: 4.7% for rape, 4.6% for robbery, 9% for assault, 6% for burglary, 3.7% for larceny, and 12.6% for motor vehicle theft.

A criminal justice professor at Northeastern University, James Alan Fox, told the Associated Press that the recent rise in murders is partly traceable to an upsurge in urban youth gang violence. The FBI report indicates there were 819 juvenile gang killings last year, compared with 580 in 1999.

“It’s quite clear that at least in terms of homicide, the great 1990s crime drop is officially over and has been for some time,” Mr. Fox said.

The FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Reporting Program statistics largely mirror those of other government studies that show crime at historically low levels. The Justice Department’s annual survey of crime victims, released in September, found the nation’s crime rate at its lowest point since such studies began in 1973.