A study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows the Americas is the most dangerous region of the world for homicides.
The “Global Study on Homicide 2013” says there were 437,000 deaths worldwide by homicide in 2012, and more than a third occurred in the Americas. Africa was a close second with 31 percent, followed by Asia with 28 percent, Europe with 5 percent and Oceania just 0.3 percent. Almost half of all homicides occur in countries that make up just 11 percent of the global population.
The global average homicide rate stands at 6.2 percent per 100,000 population, but Central America and Southern Africa have murder rates over four times higher than the average. On the other hand, Eastern Asia, Southern Europe and Northern Europe have rates five times lower than the global average, making these regions the safest in the world. Further, the homicide rate in Europe and Oceania has been on a steady decline since 1990.
The study points out that the Americas have had homicide rates five to eight times higher than those in Europe and Asia since the mid-1950s, a legacy of political and crime-related violence.
Who is most at risk? Nearly 80 percent of all victims are male and 95 percent of the perpetrators are male. Homicides generally are attributed to men in the 15 – 29 and 30 – 44 age groups. Overall, organized crime and gang-related homicide accounts for about 30 percent of deaths in the Americas, but less than 1 percent in Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Interestingly, guns are used in only 40 percent of all homicides worldwide, while in the Americas, guns represent about two-thirds of all homicides.
We present this information not to frighten you, but to provide you with personal safety information that will help you understand the overall environment and conditions in the country to which you may be moving. Here is a breakdown of the homicide rate in the countries MYIA features against the global average of 6.2 percent and the U.S. homicide rate of 4.7 percent:
Australia 1.1
Belize 44.7
Brazil 25.2
Canada 1.6
China 1.0
Costa Rica 8.5
Denmark 0.8
France 1.0
Germany 0.8
Italy 0.9;
Japan 0.3
Mexico 21.5
The Netherlands 0.9
New Zealand 0.9
Norway 2.2 (Norway is historically under 1.0 percent; this number is an outlier because it was measured in 2011, the year of the mass shooting in the country)
Singapore 0.2
Spain 0.8
Sweden 0.7
Switzerland 0.6
The United Kingdom 1.0
One final thing to keep in mind when reading these numbers: Often a majority of the homicides in a country may occur in one specific geographical area. For example, the majority of the Belize homicides in 2012 occurred in Belize City, where gang violence is rampant, according to the U.S. Department of State.
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