These Are The World's Safest (And Least Safe) Cities

Doha ranks as the safest major city in the world in 2026, while Caracas sits at the opposite end of the ranking.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, compares the world’s safest and least safe major cities using Numbeo’s 2026 Safety Index. Scores are based on five years of user submissions covering perceptions of crime, personal safety, property crime, and violent crime. They do not measure official crime rates or exposure to geopolitical conflict.

The Cities With the Highest Perceived Safety

Here are the 10 highest-scoring major cities with populations of two million or more.

Rank	Most Safe Cities	Country	Overall Score (0-100)
1	🇶🇦 Doha	Qatar	84.6
2	🇦🇪 Dubai	UAE	83.8
3	🇹🇼 Taipei	Taiwan	83.4
4	🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR	China	78.2
5	🇸🇬 Singapore	Singapore	77.7
6	🇯🇵 Tokyo	Japan	75.9
7	🇨🇳 Shenzhen	China	75.5
8	🇸🇦 Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	75.4
9	🇸🇦 Jeddah	Saudi Arabia	75.1
10	🇰🇷 Seoul	South Korea	74.6

Four of the top 10 cities are in the Middle East, including two in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and Jeddah.

Gallup’s latest Global Safety Report reinforces the pattern. Singapore had the world’s highest share of adults who said they felt safe walking alone at night, at 98%, followed by Saudi Arabia at 93% and the UAE at 90%.

Asia dominates the rest of the top 10. Outside the Middle East, every city represented is in East or Southeast Asia, while European cities are notably absent despite routinely leading global livability rankings.

- Advertisement -

The Cities With the Lowest Perceived Safety

At the opposite end of the index, the 10 lowest-scoring cities are concentrated in just two regions.

Rank	Least Safe Cities	Country	Overall Score (0-100)
1	🇻🇪 Caracas	Venezuela	18.5
2	🇿🇦 Johannesburg	South Africa	19.2
3	🇿🇦 Durban	South Africa	19.5
4	🇧🇷 Salvador	Brazil	23.5
5	🇧🇷 Fortaleza	Brazil	24.1
6	🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	24.6
7	🇧🇷 Recife	Brazil	25.0
8	🇪🇨 Guayaquil	Ecuador	25.3
9	🇿🇦 Cape Town	South Africa	26.4
10	🇨🇴 Cali	Colombia	29.1

The bottom of the ranking is heavily concentrated by country. Brazil accounts for four of the 10 cities, while South Africa accounts for three, including Johannesburg and Durban. South Africa also has one of the world’s highest homicide rates.

Gallup data show a similar geographic pattern. Of the 10 countries where people felt least safe walking alone at night, nine were in sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America. South Africa ranked lowest globally, with just 33% of adults saying they felt safe walking alone at night.

Guayaquil’s low ranking also comes amid a sharp rise in violence. Guayas province, where the city is located, recorded 4,106 homicides in 2025, the most of any province in Ecuador and up 26.5% from 2024.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on America’s most dangerous cities.