California’s homicide rate dropped 7.8 percent in 2010 versus 2009, and the percentage of “solved” homicide cases increased to 63.8 percent, according to a report released Friday by Attorney General Kamala Harris. It was the fifth consecutive year the solved-homicide rate improved, and the figure is the best it’s been since 2001.

The total number of homicides in California declined to 1,809 in 2010 from 1,970 in 2009.

The annual report shows that 80.3 percent of all homicide victims in 2010 were male. Women were more likely to be killed at home, while men were more likely to be killed on the street or sidewalk.

Ethnicity: 44.5 percent of murder victims were Hispanic; 29.6 percent were black, 18.2 percent were white, and 7.4 percent were listed as “other.”

Overall, 44.4 of victims and their killers knew each other. Blacks were more likely to be killed by strangers (47.7 percent) than were Hispanics (35.4 percent) or whites (25.4 percent).

When a weapon was involved in a homicide, the weapon was a firearm 71.2 percent of the time.

Just 36.1 percent of all homicides were gang-related.

As of Dec. 31, 2010, there were 709 convicts on California’s death row. Of those, 34 were sentenced during 2010, and of those, the county with the most (10) was Los Angeles County.

Four police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2010.

The full report is available online at www.oag.ca.gov.