Safety: the safest cities for expatriates in 2026

We do not publish any rank, score or crime rate: these league tables are compiled by private publishers from inconsistent sources, and we do not cite them as official sources.

The first problem is comparability. Crime statistics depend on reporting rates, the definition of offences and the reliability of recording, which vary considerably from one country to another.

A country where few crimes are reported, for lack of trust in the police, will appear safer than a country where every incident is recorded. The ranking then measures administrative functioning as much as actual safety.

The second problem is scale. An urban average aggregates neighbourhoods whose situations have nothing in common, and this is particularly true of large cities in Latin America and Africa.

The third is exposure. A resident's safety depends on their lifestyle — journeys, schedules, means of transport, visibility — as much as on their address.

The first question is the neighbourhood, and it cannot be dealt with remotely. Expatriate communities, schools and local employers have detailed knowledge that rankings lack.

The second is daily commuting. In Mexico City, housing close to the workplace is better than larger housing at the other end of the metropolitan area, and this trade-off is as much about safety as about comfort.

The third is official advice. Foreign ministries publish travel advice by country and by region, updated and documented. It is the only genuinely usable official source on this subject.

The fourth is insurance and assistance. Cover that includes evacuation and local legal assistance is worth more than a reassuring ranking.

Finally, the fifth is natural hazards, which safety rankings ignore even though they are statistically more likely: typhoons in the Philippines, cyclones in the Bahamas and Vanuatu, earthquakes in Mexico and Indonesia.

A sixth question deserves to be asked, and it is rarely addressed: visibility. An expatriate stands out through their language, habits and sometimes their housing, which changes their exposure regardless of the neighbourhood. The most useful advice concerns this point, and it comes from long-established residents.

A few destinations offer an objectively high and uniform level of safety: Singapore, Switzerland, Japan, the Gulf States, Monaco. There, the question of the neighbourhood hardly arises.

These destinations share another feature: they are among the most expensive in the world, and access to them is strictly regulated. Safety can be bought, and it is paid for in cost of living and entry ticket.

Singapore thus requires SGD 10,000,000¹ for the first option of its investor programme, and the Cayman Islands KYD 1,000,000² for their certificate of residence.

Conversely, the most financially accessible destinations are often those where local variation is greatest, and where the question of the neighbourhood decides everything.

1. Consult the travel advice published by the authorities, by region rather than by country.
2. Ask the local community about neighbourhoods, rather than relying on international rankings.
3. Treat the daily commute as a safety criterion in its own right.
4. Take out cover that includes assistance and evacuation.
5. Factor in natural hazards, which safety rankings ignore.

One last piece of advice applies to all destinations: a scouting trip in the low season, in the target neighbourhood, teaches more than any ranking. It reveals the real journeys, the schedules, the atmosphere of the streets in the evening — all elements that no aggregated data captures, and which determine the quality of a relocation.