It is every tourist’s nightmare: to be attacked, robbed or even injured on holiday. The safety of a destination should therefore play an important role when choosing a destination – usually it is enough to take a look at the pages of the German Foreign Office.

Many holiday destinations are considered almost completely safe when it comes to crime – above all the Nordic countries, Australia, Japan or Switzerland. Other destinations, however, have extremely high crime rates. Every year, the Numbeo database analyses the results of a corresponding survey on city break destinations and creates a crime index from it. 

„A particularly queasy feeling“

The results are based on information provided by Numbeo users, more than 100,000 people worldwide. They assess their personal perception of safety in the respective destinations. This means that the analysis is not based on objective data, but rather on where tourists had a „particularly queasy feeling“.
Thus, the topic of murder does not appear in the Numbeo analysis, the murder rate does not play a role. If it did, the two Mexican cities of Tijuana and Acapulco would be in the top two places. However, they do not appear at all. Only in the case of Caracas does the fear of crime coincide with the extremely high murder rate. 

Fear of robbery and corruption

Numbeo asked about criteria such as fear of robberies and burglaries, drug trafficking and racial discrimination. But also the feeling that corruption prevails in the respective country was evaluated. 
The result: Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, was ranked last worldwide. Nowhere else are holidaymakers more afraid of becoming victims of crime. But Caracas also scored extremely high negative values in all other categories. Neither at night nor during the day do people in this city really dare to go out on the streets. Only from racist discrimination do people feel largely safe.

Here, the feeling matches the reality: Caracas is considered one of the most criminal cities in the world. The German Foreign Office also warns of kidnappings, extortion of money payments and robberies with weapons. 

South Africa tops the list

The second and third most dangerous cities are two South African cities: Pretoria and Durban. Fifth place also goes to the country – with Johannesburg. And Brazil is perceived by holidaymakers as almost as dangerous as South Africa. 
With Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza and Natal, it occupies places 8, 9 and 10 of the perceived international crime strongholds. Even the USA is represented in the top 20 with three cities: Balitmore, Memphis and Detroit. 

Perceived high security in Europe

The situation is markedly different in Europe. The first city on the continent to be perceived as dangerous is only ranked 32nd: Bradford in Great Britain. Marseille (France) follows in 47th place, and the purely European top 10 also includes Catania, Naples (Italy), other French cities such as Nantes, Montpellier and Nice, as well as Coventry and Birmingham in the UK and Liège in Belgium.
Germany, on the other hand, is among the largely safe destinations. The country’s first „dangerous“ city is ranked 219: Frankfurt/Main. 

The 20 most dangerous cities worldwide

1 Caracas (Venezuela)2 Pretoria (South Africa)
3 Durban (South Africa)
4 Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
5 Johannesburg (South Africa)
6 San Pedro Sula (Honduras)
7 Kabul (Afghanistan)
8 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
9 Fortaleza (Brazil)
10 Natal (Brazil)
11 Port Elizabeth (South Africa)
12 Salvador (Brazil)
13 Recife (Brazil)
14 Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago)
15 Baltimore (USA)
16 Rosario (Argentina)
17 Alice Springs (Australia)
18 Memphis (USA)
19 Detroit (USA)
20 Cape Town (South Africa)

Quelle: fvw