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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