World’s Safest Cities Survey: Plenty of Canadian Surprises + Accolades for Quebec City
January 29, 2021 Jim Byers
A website called numbeo, which does yearly surveys of most livable cities and worst cities for crime, has come out with a list of the world’s safest cities.
There’s some good, and some surprising, news for Canadian cities.
The company says its ratings are based on surveys of visitors to their site, with anomalies thrown out to guard against spam entries. It may not be the most scientific survey in the world, but it’s an interesting snapshot.
The top-10 safest cities in the survey in order from 1 to 10 were Abu Dhabi, Doha (Qatar), Taipei, Quebec City, Zurich, Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), Dubai, Eskisehir (Turkey), Munich and Trieste (Italy).
That’s three entries in the top 10 for the UAE: Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai.
The worst cities in the world for safety were as follows, from 1 (worst) to 10 (terrible, but not the worst): Caracas (Venezuela), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg (all three in South Africa), San Pedro Sula (Honduras), Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), and then Natal, Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro, all in Brazil.
Not exactly great news for South Africa or Brazil tourism groups, but there you go.
The numbeo survey was based on the cities that are WORST for crime, so the higher the number the more safe they are rated. Here’s a sample of some interesting Canadian city ratings. Remember, again, that HIGHER NUMBERS ARE BEST and low numbers are worst.
54. Surrey, British Columbia (that’s the worst Canadian safety rating I saw)
73. Lethbridge, Alberta
88. Winnipeg
124. Regina
134. Oshawa, Ontario
141. Kelowna, B.C.
219. Edmonton
220. Moncton
226. Mississauga
241. Halifax
249. Toronto
284. Vancouver
300. Calgary
346. Montreal
381. Ottawa
400. Coquitlam, BC
401. Markham, Ontario
428. Quebec City
And here are some notable major cities and destinations Canadians like to visit, with another reminder that lower numbers indicated LESS safety and higher numbers suggest MORE safety.
26. Lima, Peru
35. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
60. Buenos Aires
77. Delhi
85. Naples, Italy
95. San Francisco
101. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
102. San Jose, Costa Rica
120. Paris
121. Miami
125. Cancun
144. Cairo
149. Dublin
157. Los Angeles
164. Bali
177. New York City
186. Auckland, New Zealand
192. Barcelona
195. Stockholm
200. Melbourne
205. Honolulu
236. Berlin
237. Bangkok
275. Hanoi
285. Porto, Portugal
288. Budapest
294. Boston
303. Shanghai
306. Puerto Vallarta
313. Singapore
335. Edinburgh
348. Havana
370. Geneva
384. Valencia, Spain
389. Vienna
391. Prague
398. Tokyo
409. Hong Kong
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