We recently ran across an article outlining "the world's top 50 most DANGEROUS cities, ranked."
The source is a reputable looking outfit called Numbeo.
We do feel obliged, however, to add the disclaimer often attributed to Mark Twain: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Half of the 50 cities on the list are located in just three countries: 12 in the U.S., 8 in Brazil, and 5 in South Africa.
We've passed through, stayed in, or visited more extensively 23 of the 50 cities, from Durban, number 3, to Santiago, number 50.
Of the cities on the list we know, we're not surprised by their presence, other than Alice Springs, Australia, a quaint and dusty little town we encountered during our 2014 Oz Fest trip to Australia's Red Centre. We found an Australian TV news report on this very survey, and a reporter in Alice Springs confirming the town does sadly have a serious crime problem.
Wherever we travel these days, we research our destinations, and this is just one more bit of research to keep in mind.
We'll list the cities below, with the ones we've visited highlighted in bold. The article is worth reading for some detail on each city.
2. Pretoria, South Africa
3. Durban, South Africa
4. Johannesburg, South Africa
5. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
6. San Pedro Sula, Honduras
7. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8. Port Elizabeth, South Africa
9. Fortaleza, Brazil
10. Salvador, Brazil
11. Memphis, USA
12. Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
13. Recife, Brazil
14. Rosario, Argentina
15. Baltimore, USA
16, Guayaquil, Ecuador
17. Detroit, USA
18. Cape Town, South Africa
19. Tijuana, Mexico
20. Albuquerque, USA
21. Cali, Colombia
22. Lima, Peru
23. Porto Alegre, Brazil
24. Damascus, Syria
25. Sao Paulo, Brazil
26. Alice Springs, Australia
27. St. Louis, USA
28. Oakland, USA
29. San Juan, Puerto Rico
30. Milwaukee, USA
31. Lagos, Nigeria
32. Mexico City, Mexico
33. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
34. Windhoek, Namibia
35. New Orleans, USA
36. Bogota, Colombia
37. Chicago, USA
38. Campinas, Brazil
39. Philadelphia, USA
40. Marseille, France
41. Coventry, UK
42. Manila, Philippines
43. Atlanta, USA
44. Birmingham, UK
45. Buenos Aires, Argentina
46. Houston, USA
47. Belo Horizonte, Brazil
48. Quito, Ecuador
49. Dhaka, Bangladesh
50. Santiago, Chile
