Hong Kong’s performance in recent global rankings has been a mixed bag. While the city placed 88th in the latest World Happiness Report, it also emerged as the fourth-best city in the Asia-Pacific. However, there’s good news as the territory ranks among the Top 10 safest cities globally in a list compiled by Numbeo. Hong Kong took the No. 7 spot on the list, which was topped by the European principality of Andorra.
Where Hong Kong Stands in Global Safety Rankings
The rankings were put together by crowd-sourced online database Numbeo based on their Safety Index, which took data from surveys that website visitors answered regarding 147 countries, regions, principalities, and dependencies worldwide. It looked at factors like the general perception of crime levels in a place and perceived safety there during daylight and nighttime. It also considered concerns about crimes like mugging, robbery, car theft, physical attacks, public harassment, and bias-motivated incidents in these countries and regions, as well as the severity of property and violent crime.
Hong Kong’s Safety Index score (78.5) gave it an edge over ninth-ranked Singapore (77.4), and tenth-placed Japan (77.1). However, Taiwan’s score of 82.9 landed the island the No. 4 spot, making it the highest-ranked Asian place in the entire list. The Top 5 comprises a mix of European, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries: Andorra (No. 1), the United Arab Emirates (No. 2), Qatar (No. 3), Taiwan (No. 4), and Oman (No. 5).
The World’s Most Dangerous Countries
On the flip side, the most dangerous country is Venezuela with a low safety score of 19.3. Other countries at the bottom were Papua New Guinea (19.7), Haiti (21.1), Afghanistan (24.9), and South Africa (25.3). Canada (No. 75), the United Kingdom (No. 87) and the United States (No. 89) are in the middle of the pack, while Mainland China (No. 15) and South Korea (No. 17) made it to the Top 20.
Hong Kong may be one of the safest places in the world, but there are neighbourhoods in the city with their fair share of crime. According to a survey by Preply, Yau Tsim Mong is the most dangerous district in the territory, with 8,883 crimes reported by the local police from January-October 2024, followed by Kwun Tong (7,608 cases) and Sha Tin (6,519 cases).
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