Top 10 Safest places in the World

[Evie]

And your whole "It's the foreigner's fault" attitude is very distasteful to me, so we appear to be at a deadend on what's distasteful to who.

As for being local, it's a double-edged sword. It means you're exposed to facts, yes. It also means you're exposed to how the prejudice of your societies tend to overemphasize the facts that comfort those prejudice, while de-emphasizing those facts that stand against these prejudices. It take actual studies and counting to determine who's responsible for the criminality in a country, not living there.

 

[Kyriakos]

Right. You know just because you have a trope in mind, doesn't mean it fits any or all situations.

However it is obvious that this won't actually develop into a discussion any of the two of us stands to gain something from, so i wish you happy holidays to your next summer destination, in Sunni Albania

 

[Mise]

Oh, no, Greece is not as dangerous as Albania.

Greece is worse. By eleven ranks. (2012 numbers)

(That said, this is a very new development - prior to 2012, Greece was constantly far ahead of Albania. It's probably the debt crisis, protests, rise in popularity of far-right parties, etc that are torpedoing Greece's rating)

As I said, it's a very new change. BEFORE 2011, Greece was always ahead of Albania - but Greece's safety rating has been freefalling the last few years.

77th in 2012 (Albania 66th)
65th in 2011 (Albania 63rd)
62nd in 2010 (Albania 65th)
57th in 2009 (Albania 75th)
54th in 2008 (Albania 79th)
44th in 2007 (Albania not ranked)

Given what they use to measure this index, large-scale violent protests (you've been havinng those I hear), and political instability are huge issues that can and will drag down your numbers. So that's probably what's killing Greece.

I can't say for a fact but I strongly suspect that the level of discrimination in a society probably also contributes. For example, blaming the Albanians for everything that's wrong.

Just saying.

Yeah, makes perfect sense to me. Lots of riots = less safe. Not sure what's controversial about that.

 

[Goodfella]

The peace index isn't equivalent to safety. A better indicator of safety would be violent crime alone. Is the US really that much more unsafe because we have an astronomical military budget? No, we're unsafe because we have tons of urban areas like New Orleans, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit which have loads of crime.

 

[kiwitt]

We're discussing this in NZ as well, and "safest" based on reported statistics is really a false measure. The countries with the highest crime statistics, may in actual fact be so high because the country's society's tolerance for crime is lower and it is reported more often. In some countries, if you report you are raped you can be stoned for adultery, unless you have four male witnesses, which kind of deters a lot of reporting of that type of crime.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Australia, not as safe as New Zealand, but significantly more interesting and your neighbours aren't sheep.

No, you neighbours would be australians. I prefer sheep.

PS Astralian/New Zealand joke-rivalry aside, I percieve the to countries as equaly sheep-dominated?

 

[Goodfella]

We're discussing this in NZ as well, and "safest" based on reported statistics is really a false measure. The countries with the highest crime statistics, may in actual fact be so high because the country's society's tolerance for crime is lower and it is reported more often. In some countries, if you report you are raped you can be stoned for adultery, unless you have four male witnesses, which kind of deters a lot of reporting of that type of crime.

The peace index also uses crime statistics so either measure's inaccurate. And even if it's underreported, are you just going to use something that's unrelated? My point was that military spending doesn't actually tell you how safe a country is.

 

[NovaKart]

Safety can vary so much depending on what part of the country you're in. Iraqi Kurdistan is really very safe. The only thing I really worry would worry about is that people have a high concept of honor and revenge and you have to be careful not to piss someone off. I was really amazed to see the stacks of money at the money changers desks in the street and they didn't seem to be that attentive or worried about it.

I think Turkey is actually very safe and the average Turkish city is much safer than American cities, but the terrorism problem must be what gives it a bad rating. The terrorism is usually very easy to avoid though, even in the east. The only part of Turkey I would tell people to be cautious about visiting is Hakari.

In the US too safety varies so much. I think in rural areas drugs is becoming more a problem though, especially in the South. When I was a kid I never heard about people doing drugs in rural Kentucky, though I'm sure it happened but I don't think it was so bad. Now everyone is talking about people doing meth.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Doesn't Turkey have problems with corrupt police and torture?

 

[NovaKart]

Yeah there are a whole lot of things wrong with Turkey but I think as a place to live it's very safe.

 

[Inhalaattori]

The level of discussion I'm used to is one where comments like "(Insert culture) Foreigners are responsible for the criminality here" get (rightly) frowned upon as a fundamentally xenophobic sort of statement.

I find your comment quite stupid. Facts are facts. In quite many countries certain immigrant populations are responsible for quite a lot of crime or certain kind of crimes. If political correctness goes to this level its really starting to hurt the common good. If there is a problem, it should be dealt with.

Yeah there are a whole lot of things wrong with Turkey but I think as a place to live it's very safe.

I would although think that Eastern part of Turkey can be dangerous at times. Its same thing in every country. There are some safe havens and then there are more dangerous places. Also in Finland (where I live) the homicide rate is at least two times bigger in Lapland than in Southern Finland. Differences inside countries are often bigger than differences between countries.

 

[Evie]

I find your comment quite stupid. Facts are facts. In quite many countries certain immigrant populations are responsible for quite a lot of crime or certain kind of crimes. If political correctness goes to this level its really starting to hurt the common good. If there is a problem, it should be dealt with.

In the vast majority of cases, those problems are as much the fault of the host country and the situation they put the immigrants in, as it is the fault of the immigrants themselves.

Moreover in the vast majority of cases, the criminality resulting from those immigrants is vastly overplayed for political purposes by medias, public figures, and by those who have a xenophobic agenda of their own (not to say everyone who make that kind of accusation has a xenophobic agenda. Some do, not all).

All in all, "Ethnic group X are the criminals" contributes nothing to useful reduction of crime, and only contribute to making it harder for these people to integrate in society, thus leaving them more likely to engage in criminal activities to begin with.

 

[NovaKart]

There's more of a security presence in Eastern Turkey, in the town I lived in there was a tank that patrolled the place sometimes. However, the target of terrorists are normally military and government institutions and it's normally very calm there but more dangerous than in the West and there can be a lot of tension in Diyarbakir at times.

 

[Samsquamch]

Apparently Sheffield is one of the safest places to live in the UK

 

[Arwon]

We're discussing this in NZ as well, and "safest" based on reported statistics is really a false measure. The countries with the highest crime statistics, may in actual fact be so high because the country's society's tolerance for crime is lower and it is reported more often. In some countries, if you report you are raped you can be stoned for adultery, unless you have four male witnesses, which kind of deters a lot of reporting of that type of crime.

There's crime victims surveys run by statistics agencies in a lot of countries which iron out the administrative counting and comparability issues, if not the cultural ones about what's considered crime victimhood.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

We totally 86 safety over here. That's for wimps.

I lol'd.

Kind of sad that we are behind many countries that I would consider to be dangerous or unstable parts of the world.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Bhutan looks cool. Less than a million in population, about the size/form of an inverted Fyrom, and landlocked between China and India.

Surely it is not any protectorate at all.

It does have a very cool flag though:

Spoiler :

I'd move to Bhutan right now. Comparing it with FYROM is sacrilegious. Bhutan is a thunder god dragon constitutional monarchy. Remove Gurkha defend Druk Gyalpo.

 

[Borachio]

Apparently Sheffield is one of the safest places to live in the UK

Is it? I thought it was a rough old hole. Or maybe that's Nottingham.

 

[Winner]

Czech Rep. is safer than Switzerland?

Must be the avalanches.

 

[warpus]

I can confirm that New Zealand is incredibly safe. First of all, there are no animals on the island that can kill you - in complete contrast to Australia for example - where every single animal is capable of at least decapitating you.

That they don't have more than 1 large city helps - although I felt very safe walking the streets of Auckland late at night. Mind you that's very anecdotal, but there you go.