The World’s 20 Safest Cities of 2017

One oft heard bit of advice to departing travelers is: “Travel safe.” That can be easier said than done, but if safety is a priority, there are the occasional studies that attempt to evaluate and rank the world’s cities according to their safety levels. One recently released example is The Economist’s Safe Cities Index 2017.

The study ranked 60 cities across 49 separate indicators and ranked them for digital security, health security, infrastructure security, and personal security. So each city was ranked on all four dimensions, as well as on security overall.

These are the top 20 cities overall:

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Singapore, Singapore
3. Osaka, Japan
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Melbourne, Australia
6. Amsterdam, Netherlands
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Stockholm, Sweden
9. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
10. Zurich, Switzerland
11. Frankfurt, Germany
12. Madrid, Spain
13. Barcelona, Spain
14. Seoul, South Korea
15. San Francisco, U.S.
16. Wellington, New Zealand
17. Brussels, Belgium
18. Los Angeles, U.S.
19. Chicago, U.S.
20. London, U.K.

While the U.S. performed well in digital security, with four cities in the top 10 (Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Dallas), the country had only three cities (San Francisco at #15, Los Angeles at #18, Chicago at #19) in the top 20 overall, dragged down by poor performance in infrastructure security and personal security.

The 10 worst performing of the 60 cities represented, worst first, were as follows:

1. Karachi, Pakistan
2. Yangon, Myanmar
3. Dhaka, Bangladesh
4. Jakarta, Indonesia
5. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
6. Manila, Philippines
7. Caracas, Venezuela
8. Quito, Ecuador
9. Tehran, Iran
10. Cairo, Egypt

So, travel safe!

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• How to Snag a NYC Hotel for $100 per Night
• The Top 25 Travel Apps to Upgrade Your Smartphone

After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.