The Safest Cities in the World 2021

In his report, Copenhagen’s lord mayor, Lars Weiss, comments that the city’s low crime rate contributes significantly to its positive public perception as a safe place to live. With 82.2 points, Canada’s city of Toronto was second to Singapore, which finished third with 80.7 points.

Sydney took fourth place in the digital security category with an overall score of 80.1 points, while Tokyo took fifth place with an overall score of 80.0 points. By 2021, the Economist Intelligence released the most expensive cities to live in for ex-pats.

Affectivity of Covid-19

According to the Economist Intelligence, Melbourne and Hong Kong cities were ranked eighth among the global safest cities. Hong Kong and Melbourne tied for eighth place in the rankings for the intelligence unit.

A new analysis states that Copenhagen is the “deserving overall leader and Toronto a well-deserving runner-up. As much because of long-term performance in making citizens secure from any specific gains in the preceding two years for the intelligence unit, these cities have performed well amidst the pandemic.

For the first time in the intelligence units, Toronto and Copenhagen have performed better than any of the previous top three cities regarding environmental security. Amsterdam came in sixth position with 79.3 points, whereas Wellington, New Zealand, came in seventh place and was the overall environmental security champion.

Stockholm, Sweden, came in at number ten with 78.0 points, while Hong Kong and Melbourne shared the eighth position with 78.6 each. With an eleventh-place finish, New York City tied with Barcelona as the highest-ranking American city on the list (both cities received 77.8 points).

London, San Francisco, and Washington, DC all finished in a tie for 15th place.

Resilience in a City’s Infrastructure

The city of Sydney, Australia, came out on top regarding digital security while being ranked fourth overall. Australian capital city, Sydney, ranked fourth overall but top in digital security.

The worst-scoring cities haven’t increased in recent years, but they still rank near the bottom in every category. In terms of environmental security, Lagos ranked “slightly above average,” while Casablanca came in at a respectable 41st in digital security, according to the survey.

Covid-19 comes up a lot, especially in health security assessments, where Copenhagen came in lower than the other categories. More people have been infected and have suffered more damage in some locations due to the coronavirus’s absence.

Is this the point at which things begin to change?

After receiving a total score of 78.0 points, the Swedish capital, Stockholm, placed 10th in the overall rankings. With a score of 78.0, Stockholm, Sweden, completed the top 10.

Photograph by Jonas Gratzer, used with permission.

Survey

For the second year, Tokyo is ranked first in the latest survey (2017). The final nine cities are located in the East Asian region (Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong). One is a Canadian city (Winnipeg), while the other five are in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (Toronto).

Besides evaluating traffic accidents and health difficulties caused by pollution, the report considers various threats to well-being in addition to ranking cities based only on personal safety (safety from violence). It’s easy to be misled by these statistics since we tend to think of safety in cities solely in terms of violent crime.

There is a noticeable movement in the rankings when personal safety is considered. Osaka and Tokyo are third and fourth, respectively, in the rankings, and Taipei and Hong Kong round up the top ten East Asian cities. The rest is a cross-section of countries from Europe, Canada, and Australia.

However, there are still a few lingering doubts about this index. The Economist Intelligence ranks personal safety based on the “degree of police involvement.” Despite its arguably deterring effect on criminality, Toronto and Singapore’s notoriously stringent legal enforcement suffer due to this, and Toronto and Singapore have often suffered due to reduced police involvement.

Besides the Economist Intelligence, the Global Peace Index (GPI) is another important resource, and it is often referred to along with the Economist Intelligence to assess a city’s safety.

 This ranking focuses on a country’s involvement in domestic and foreign conflicts. Iceland, New Zealand, Austria, and Denmark are all excellent performers. This methodology has biases, but it must be understood.

GPI includes “neighbouring country” as a ranking element, which negatively influences many East Asian countries, but do people migrating overseas care about regional spats if they have no direct impact on them?

Facts Based Approach

Word of mouth is another significant way to gauge a city’s safety and quality of life. Your friends, family, and a larger network can’t replicate the reports and indexes above, but they can still provide important information.

The predominance of pickpockets in subway systems is one example of how ex-pats and visitors are disproportionately more likely to be victims of particular types of crime. An additional concern is a risk of obtaining counterfeit cash from certain establishments or areas of a city.

Conclusion: 

To prevent security and safety risks that aren’t generally reported, this kind of on-the-ground Economist Intelligence is priceless. Moving to a new city can be overwhelming. Still, our move managers have extensive knowledge of the area and can help you settle in quickly. Click here to get in touch if you’d like.