Here Are This Year's 20 Safest Cities in The World

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You ideally don't want to live in a place that's prone to flooding. Driving on city streets that play host to snarling, dangerous traffic with no enforceable laws is also a bad look for your hometown. So to help the good people of Earth understand which cities are the safest places to call home, TheEconomist Intelligence Unit released its 2017 Safe Cities Index. 

As you probably inferred, The Economist report, which analyzes 60 cities across 49 indicators spanning digital, climate, infrastructural, health and personal security concerns, is here to provide a glimpse of the safest urban centers across the globe. The findings draw on research from various university and think tank experts, all of whom work in the fields of urban policy and planning, public health, and international relations. 

Keeping in line with the 2015 report, Tokyo is the safest city in the world with a score of 89.80. A lack of geopolitical turmoil and terrorist attacks, coupled with leading technological security and the absence of many natural disasters has helped Tokyo stay ahead of the pack. These are more or less the standards on which the report bases it's findings, as cities like Dhaka, Indonesia are situated at the bottom, owing to intense social and political unrest. 

The Japanese capital posted great vitals in a number of areas, placing in the top four across digital security, health security, and personal security. Asia is dotted with a handful of ultra safe cities, as Singapore, Osaka, and Hong Kong all rank in the top 10 with scores in the upper 80s. 

As far as other major urban hubs across the world go, refer to the report's top 20 cities below: 

  • Tokyo 89.80
  • Singapore 89.64
  • Osaka 88.87
  • Toronto 87.36
  • Melbourne 87.30
  • Amsterdam 87.26
  • Sydney 86.74
  • Stockholm 86.72
  • Hong Kong 86.22
  • Zurich 85.20
  • Frankfurt 84.86
  • Madrid 83.88
  • Barcelona 83.71
  • Seoul 83.61
  • San Francisco 83.55
  • Wellington * 83.18 
  • Brussels 83.01
  • Los Angeles 82.26
  • Chicago 82.21
  • London 82.10

The United States managed to squeeze three cities into the top 20, with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago rounding out the bottom half. As the report states, America's substandard infrastructure is affecting the United States' standing overall. But the US over-performs in digital security, as the Economist writes: "Of the cities in the top ten in this category, four are North American (Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Dallas)." 

[h/t Travel + Leisure

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