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The Economist Safe Cities Index 2017: Tokyo is the safest city in the world

FrankCanada97

Roughly the size of a baaaaaarge
EDIT: Out of a selection of 60 of "the world's leading cities".

http://safecities.economist.com/

Executive summary

In many respects it’s the very success of cities, in their role as global social and economic hubs, that makes them more vulnerable. As rural residents head for the city in developing countries and wealthy global capitals draw in international talent, vast demographic shifts are creating cities with previously unimagined population sizes. In 2016, there were 31 megacities—cities with more than 10m inhabitants. This is projected to rise to 41 by 2030.
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Cities are also defined by the complex, interlinked nature of their systems and infrastructure. This complexity has a bearing on safety. For example, experts are uncovering links between the quality of housing and the health of citizens. And while terrorist attacks are what make headlines, traffic accidents are a greater day-to-day danger for urban residents. Natural forces are also coming in to play as climate change poses new risks to cities, with extreme weather events becoming an even greater threat, as illustrated by the devastation Hurricane Harvey just delivered to Houston, Texas.

The 2017 Safe Cities Index retains the four categories of security from the 2015 version— digital, health, infrastructure and physical. However, we have added six new indicators and expanded the index to cover 60 cities, up from 50 in 2015.

The index’s key findings include the following:

- As in 2015, Tokyo tops the overall ranking. The Japanese capital’s strongest performance is in the digital security category while it has risen seven points in the health security category since 2015. However, in infrastructure security, it has fallen out of the top ten, to 12th.

- In many cities, security is falling rather than rising: With two exceptions (Madrid, which is up 13 points and Seoul, up six), cities tend to have fallen in the index since 2015 (for example, New York is down 11, Lima is down 13, Johannesburg is down nine, Ho Chi Minh City is down ten and Jakarta is down 13)

- Asian and European cities remain at the top of the index: Of the cities in the top ten positions in the overall index, four are East Asian cities (Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong), while three (Amsterdam, Stockholm and Zurich) are European.

- Asia and the Middle East and Africa dominate the bottom of the index: Dhaka, Yangon and Karachi are at the bottom of the list. Of the ten cities at the bottom of the overall index, three are in South-east Asia (Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta), two are in South Asia (Dhaka and Karachi) and two are in the Middle East and Africa (Cairo and Tehran).

- Security remains closely linked to wealth but the scores of high-income cities are falling: While cities in developed economies dominate the top half of the index (with the lower half dominated by cities in poorer countries), of the 14 cities in high-income countries, the security scores of ten have fallen since 2015.

- Income is not the only factor governing city performance on security: Most of the cities in the top ten of the index are highincome or upper middle-income cities. However, two high-income cities in the Middle East (Jeddah and Riyadh) fall below position 40 in the index.

- America’s failing infrastructure is reflected in its cities’ rankings: No US city makes it into the top ten in this category and only San Francisco appears in the top 20. The top ten cities in this category are either in Europe (Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Zurich) or Asia-Pacific (Singapore, Wellington, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Sydney).

- However, the US performs well in digital safety: Of the cities in the top ten in this category, four are North American (Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Dallas).

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Full report is available to browse here:

https://dkf1ato8y5dsg.cloudfront.net/uploads/5/82/safe-cities-index-2017-eng.pdf
 

AAK

Member
Toronto? There are so many crime headlines I read throughout the week.... that can't be right.
 

Danneee

Member
I can vouch for Tokyo. Awesome city and never felt unsafe, not even in the middle of the night strolling through alleys.
 

explodet

Member
As in 2015, Tokyo tops the overall ranking. The Japanese capital’s strongest performance is in the digital security category while it has risen seven points in the health security category since 2015. However, in infrastructure security, it has fallen out of the top ten, to 12th.

The safest city in the world, even though there's this one area of the city about ten square blocks large where some asshole with an eyepatch and snakeskin jacket will show up out of nowhere to beat the crap out of you.

 

ldcommando

Banned
Rio de Janeiro at 37th and safer than São Paulo is going to make so many brazilians salty it's not even funny. Still, LMAO!
 

WaterAstro

Member
When a shitton of safer cities that aren't on there, like my city of Vancouver, while places like Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, and Delhi are on there. Kind of feels like an incomplete study.
 

Piggus

Member
Been to the top 3 (and Hong Kong) in the last two years and yeah, felt pretty safe there. Then again I’ve never really felt “unsafe” in any major city other than some dubious streets in San Francisco.
 

Plum

Member
The safest city in the world, even though there's this one area of the city about ten square blocks large where some asshole with an eyepatch and snakeskin jacket will show up out of nowhere to beat the crap out of you.

And anyone who walks at a slightly faster than normal pace is jumped upon by random thugs every two minutes.
 
I know in reality Toronto is a safe city but sometimes it just doesn't feel like hearing about random shootings and stabbings all the time but i guess its all anecdotal. One of my friends living in the downtown Core once witnessed someone getting shot in front of him, but i guess in reality its actually pretty rare.
 
This list seems very odd, and while I was going to go celebrate that Chicago, the city Trump loves to trash, is the 18th most safe city in the world ....... I realize that the qualifications for being on this list are very odd and impossible to understand the reasoning for it at a glance.

Weighing digital security the same as whether you're likely to be shot seems strange.

Right... especially when a lot of your personal digital risk has very little to do with what city you're in. Unless they're exclusively focusing on, say, hackers taking over traffic lights ALA Watchdogs, in which case, San Fran and Chicago should be at the bottom.

LA safer than London? Da fuq?

LONDONISTAN RIGHT!!!!?
 

diaspora

Member
I know in reality Toronto is a safe city but sometimes it just doesn't feel like hearing about random shootings and stabbings all the time but i guess its all anecdotal. One of my friends living in the downtown Core once witnessed someone getting shot in front of him, but i guess in reality its actually pretty rare.

that's more of a reporting thing than an actual number of occurrences thing
 
Yeah... I don't believe all these cities in places like India, Mexico and the US are safer than every Canadian city outside of Toronto, no matter what criteria they're using..
 
I used to have pretty severe anxiety over crowded spaces/crowds and I have never felt safer in my life than when I've been in Tokyo during the same time in my life. Purely anecdotal I know but the city just feels extremely safe to me.
 
Yeah... I don't believe all these cities in places like India, Mexico and the US are safer than every Canadian city outside of Toronto, no matter what criteria they're using..

The criteria they're using seems to be that cities with massive populations. The reason only Toronto is on the list is biggest it's the most populous city in Canada and Canada is very sparsely populated.
 

_Ryo_

Member
Isnt Japans most popular form of currency still heavily balanced towards paper bills and coins? In fact, even dealing with credit cards there seem to be a huge migraine. Wouldnt that help with digital security?
 

FrankCanada97

Roughly the size of a baaaaaarge
Yeah sorry, I don't know what criteria they used to select the 60 cities. They just vaguely say they are "60 of the world's leading cities".
 
Yeah Tokyo feels incredibly safe, almost liberating to be able to wander around on your own in the middle of the night without a single worry about personal safety. Also the city is very clean, over a year I barely saw any trash discarded on the street.
 

Omadahl

Banned
But America has all of the guns! This is ludicrous! Why I oughta find out who made that chart and put a bullet in'em.
 
The criteria they're using seems to be that cities with massive populations. The reason only Toronto is on the list is biggest it's the most populous city in Canada and Canada is very sparsely populated.
The Economist's most livable cities lists include smaller cities so I assumed they would here as well.

edit- Looking at the list again, it has Wellington, NZ on there. That's smaller than a bunch of Canadian cities.
 
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