FBI statistics show that cases of murder and manslaughter — excluding negligent manslaughter — went up more than 30 percent last year in Connecticut but the state had the second largest drop in violent crime in the country, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Monday.

Citing new FBI statistics for 2015, the governor said the state's violent crime rate is at its lowest levels since 1974. The overall crime rate is the lowest since 1967, the governor said.

Violent crime in general dropped 8.5 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the FBI statistics. The decrease "builds upon a significant drop in violent crime in 2014 and 2013," Malloy said.

"The prison population is at a 20-year low and the number of people aged 18-21 entering our criminal justice system has fallen by more than 50 percent since 2008 – a predictor of a further drop in crime and imprisonment rate in the years to come," he said.

"But we cannot rest on our laurels," the governor said, "there is more work to be done and we will continue to pursue policies that will lower our crime rate even further while breaking the cycle of poverty and incarceration."

The statistics show:

- With the decrease of 8.5 percent, Connecticut saw the biggest drop in violent crime of any state with a population of more than 1 million people, Malloy said.

- Since 2010, violent crime in Connecticut has dropped 22 percent, from 10,083 incidents reported in 2010 to 7,845 incidents reported in 2015.

- The 8.5 percent drop in violent crime in 2015 includes a 2.6 percent decrease in rape under a revised definition of the crime, an 8.8 percent decrease in robberies and a 10.1 percent decrease in aggravated assaults. Under the original definition of rape, the crime actually increased .5 percent, from 579 to 582, the statistics show.

- Among the violent crimes were Connecticut's murders and "nonnegligent" manslaughters, which increased 31.5 percent, from 89 in 2014 to 117 in 2015.

- Nonviolent property crimes have decreased in the state during 2015, including a 16.7 percent drop in burglaries and a 4.9 percent drop in larcenies.

- The state saw a 3.7 percent increase in motor vehicle thefts, however.

Connecticut is one of nine states to experience a drop in violent crime over the last year, Malloy said.