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Four U.S. cities are among the 50 most dangerous in the world. The rankings were compiled by a Mexican research group–the Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice– which released its annual study of the world’s most dangerous cities. Latin America has once again topped the list, with 43 of the 50 located in the region, and 21 of them located in Brazil alone.
Surprisingly, for the talk of American gun violence, just four U.S. Cities made the list including St. Louis at 15 followed by Baltimore at 19, Detroit at 28 and New Orleans at 32. St. Louis is up over 50 percent from its rankings in 2014.
“We make this ranking with the political objective of calling attention to the violence in the cities, particularly in Latin America, so that their governments are under pressure to improve their obligation to protect their citizens, to guarantee their right to public security,’ said Citizens’ Council in the report. Across Latin America, drug trafficking, gang wars, political instability, corruption and poverty are to blame for the high homicide. The region has just 8 per cent of the world’s population, according to UN data.
Venezuela’s capital city Caracas has taken the top spot for the ranking – which is based on the number of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants of the city in 2015, and doesn’t take war zones into account.
The ranking only takes into account cities with a population of more than 300,000, and doesn’t include deaths in combat zones or cities with unavailable data – this explains why some cities that would be expected on the list don’t feature.
Another ranking this year found some of the safest cities in the world included Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv in Israel, plus several northern European cities. Europe’s city rankings are worsening as they have seen violence, especially violent sex crimes against women, skyrocket with an influx Middle-Eastern and north African refugees.
Tokyo remains the worlds safest city, while also being the world’s largest with over 15 million residents
World’s Most Dangerous Cities
- Caracas, Venezuela – 119.87
- San Pedro Sula, Honduras – 111.03
- San Salvador, El Salvador – 108.54
- Acapulco, Mexico – 104.73
- Maturin, Venezuela – 86.45
- Distrito Central, Honduras – 73.51
- Valencia, Venezuela – 72.31
- Palmira, Colombia – 70.88
- Cape Town, South Africa – 65.53
- Cali, Colombia – 64.27
- Cuidad Guayana, Venezuela – 62.33
- Fortaleza, Brazil – 60.77
- Natal, Brazil – 60.66
- Salvador, Brazil – 60.63
- St Louis, Missouri, U.S. – 59.23
- Joao Pessoa, Brazil – 58.40
- Culiacan, Mexico – 56.09
- Maceio, Brazil – 55.63
- Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. – 54.98
- Barquisimeto, Venezuela – 54.96
- Sao Luis, Brazil – 53.05
- Cuiaba, Brazil – 48.52
- Manaus, Brazil – 47.87
- Cumana, Venezuela – 47.77
- Guatemala City, Guatemala – 47.17
- Belem, Brazil – 45.83
- Feira de Santana, Brazil – 45.5
- Detroit, Michigan, U.S. – 43.89
- Goiania, Brazil – 43.38
- Teresina, Brazil – 42.64
- Vitoria, Brazil – 41.99
- New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. – 41.44
- Kingston, Jamaica – 41.14
- Gran Barcelona, Venezuela – 40.08
- Tijuana, Mexico – 39.09
- Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil – 38.46
- Recife, Brazil – 38.12
- Brazil – 37.7
- Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil – 36.16
- Campina Grande, Brazil – 36.04
- Durban, South Africa – 35.93
- Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa – 35.85
- Porto Alegre, Brazil – 34.73
- Curitiba, Brazil – 34.71
- Pereira, Colombia – 32.58
- Victoria, Mexico – 30.50
- Johannesburg, South Africa – 30.31
- Macapa, Brazil – 30.25
- Maracaibo, Venezuela – 28.85
- Obregon, Mexico – 28.29
