London makes list of top 10 safest cities in world
Lucy Thackray
16 November 2022, 9:24 pm ·2-min read
The capital appears alongside Copenhagen, Seoul and Sydney on the list (Getty Images)
London has been named one of the top 10 safest cities in the world for travellers in a new survey.
Reykjavik, Iceland, topped the list, followed by Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Canadian city of Montreal, with London ranked in ninth place.
Asian cities performed well in the study, with South Korean capital Seoul, Singapore and Japanese capital Tokyo all featuring in the top 10. Sydney, Australia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Berlin, Germany also made the cut.
Fifteen cities made up the list, which was published by US insurance company Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection.
The firm said it had researched the list by narrowing down the 29 most popular cities, then asking travellers who have visited them to rank each city on a range of safety and security criteria. It then factored in the most recent data from the safe-cities index from The Economist, city ratings from GeoSure Global, and the Current Crime Index from Numbeo.
The topics it polled visitors on included violent crime, terrorism, healthcare and safety for women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ people.
Reykjavik received a score of 76 out of 100, while Copenhagen scored 74 and Montreal 73.
Berkshire noted some conflicting data on London's safety record, saying: "There seems to be numerical consensus on London's safety, but that's misleading. Numbeo says it's less safe than Algiers or Medellin. GeoSure says it's quite safe, however."
The company gave one "thing to watch out for" for each city - from drug use to firearms - with London's being "Traffic – and looking both ways before crossing a street. Americans tend to look the wrong way before crossing, and British drivers don't always stop for pedestrians."
Only Sydney had no caveat of something to watch out for while on holiday there.
Barcelona, Rome and Paris all made it into the top 15, along with Hawaiian hub Honolulu and UAE favourite Dubai.
The firm also separated out top 10s for different types of traveller; in the top 10 safest cities for women, Tokyo came out on top, followed by Montreal and Amsterdam.
"Because we had people who had actually visited specific cities doing the rating this year, we felt comfortable asking them about multiple aspects of travel safety, including safety from crime, terrorism, and disease, and safety for vulnerable groups such as travellers of colour and LGBTQ+ travellers," said Berkshire Hathaway representative Kit Kiefer.
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