The Safest Cities

The Economist Intelligence Unit creates a lot of interesting data. One report which caught our interest is the the Safe Cities Index which ranks 60 cities across 49 indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure security and personal security. The Safe Cities Index 2017 is most recent study, the 2018 report isn’t out yet, although we think the findings will be pretty similar. In general Asian cities rank quite high, specifically Japanese cities are remarkably safe.

The job of properly growing and governing large cities is remarkably complex. A combination of natural and human factors can greatly change the safety of a city. However certain trends stick out; in general wealthier cities are safer, an on-going investment in infrastructure is necessary to maintain security and new online threats in cyber security will play a greater role in cities in the future.

In many respects it’s the very success of cities, in their role as global social and economic hubs, that makes them more vulnerable. In 2016, there were 31 megacities—cities with more than 10m inhabitants. This is projected to rise to 41 by 2030.

The Top 10 Safest Cities in 2017 were dominated by Asian and European cities. Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong represent the Asian contribution while Amsterdam, Stockholm and Zurich are European. Toronto, Melbourne and Sydney also figure quite prominently.