Which cities had the world's highest homicide rates in 2017?
As of 2017, the most dangerous cities in the world by homicide rate sat almost entirely in Latin America. The Mexican watchdog that compiles the standard ranking placed Caracas at the top, with a murder rate more than ten times the level recorded by many capital cities.
The figures come from the Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal (CCSPJP), a Mexico City-based non-governmental organisation that publishes an annual index of the world's most violent cities. The edition released in 2017 draws on homicide data from 2016. Its method is deliberately narrow, which is what makes it comparable across borders.
How the ranking is measured
The CCSPJP counts intentional homicides per 100,000 residents over a single calendar year. It includes only cities with at least 300,000 inhabitants, and it excludes active war zones — places such as Syria or Iraq, where deaths are recorded as conflict casualties rather than crimes. That last exclusion is important: it means the list is a measure of civilian criminal violence, not a global count of every violent death.
The per-100,000 rate is the metric used in almost all cross-country comparisons, because it puts a small city and a megacity on the same footing. A rate of 130 per 100,000, for example, means about 0.13% of residents were killed in a year.
The top ten cities, as of 2017
Caracas, Venezuela topped the 2017 ranking with about 130.35 homicides per 100,000 residents — some 4,308 killings in a single year, or close to 12 a day. Acapulco, Mexico (113.24) and San Pedro Sula, Honduras (112.09) followed. The drop after the top three is sharp: the fourth-ranked city, Distrito Central (Tegucigalpa) in Honduras, recorded 85.09 per 100,000, and the rest of the top ten clustered in a tight band between roughly 70 and 85.
Why the map is so lopsided
The concentration is striking. Of the 50 cities in the 2016 CCSPJP ranking, 19 were in Brazil, eight in Mexico and seven in Venezuela. In all, 43 of the 50 lay in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil alone accounted for well over a third of the list — a reflection of its large urban population and the drug- and gang-related violence concentrated in several of its cities.
Every city in the 2017 top ten sat in the Americas — no Asian, European or Oceanian city came close, and none in Europe appeared anywhere on the list of fifty.
What the rate does and does not say
A homicide rate is a rate, not a verdict on an entire city. Two caveats matter for anyone reading the table as a travel guide. First, the figure is a city-wide average for one year: violence is usually concentrated in specific neighbourhoods, so the risk to a given resident or visitor can differ sharply from the headline number. Second, the ranking moves. San Pedro Sula held the top spot for several years before Caracas overtook it, and a single year can swing with a change in policing, a shift in gang activity or a truce.
The index also says nothing about the causes behind the deaths. Understanding why a city's rate is high would need the detail behind each case — the kind of information held in police records rather than a single ranking. Read as what it is, the CCSPJP list is a consistent, like-for-like snapshot of where recorded homicide was most common as of 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Which was the most dangerous city in the world in 2017?
As of 2017, Caracas, Venezuela topped the CCSPJP ranking with about 130.35 homicides per 100,000 residents, based on 2016 data — roughly 4,308 killings in a year, or close to 12 a day.
How is the most-dangerous-cities ranking measured?
The CCSPJP index counts intentional homicides per 100,000 residents. It includes only cities of at least 300,000 people and excludes active war zones, so it measures civilian criminal violence rather than conflict casualties.
Why are so many of the most dangerous cities in Latin America?
Of the 50 cities in the 2016 ranking, 43 were in Latin America and the Caribbean — 19 in Brazil, eight in Mexico and seven in Venezuela. Every city in the top ten was in the Americas.
Does a high homicide rate mean a whole city is dangerous for visitors?
No. The rate is a city-wide average for a single year. Violence is usually concentrated in particular neighbourhoods, so the risk to a given resident or visitor can be very different from the headline figure.
Why does the 2017 ranking use 2016 homicide data?
The CCSPJP publishes its ranking early each year using the previous full year's completed homicide figures. The edition released in 2017 therefore reflects homicides recorded during 2016.
- Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal (CCSPJP) — ranking of the 50 most violent cities in the world, 2016 data (published 2017).
- InsightCrime — "Latin America Again Dominates World's 50 Deadliest Cities Ranking" (Caracas #1 at over 130 per 100,000; Brazil 19, Mexico 8, Venezuela 7; 43 of 50 in Latin America; cities of 300,000+, war zones excluded).
- Instituto Igarapé — analysis of the world's most violent cities (methodology and cross-source context).