The Most Dangerous Cities In The World

In an era of global mobility, understanding urban risk is more critical than ever. The world’s most dangerous cities are not defined solely by perception or anecdote, but by persistent socio-economic challenges, high crime rates, and deeply entrenched security issues.

This article ranks 10 cities based on data from Numbeo’s 2025 Crime Index, which aggregates residents' reported experiences of crime and personal safety. Cities such as Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, and Caracas top the list, highlighting geographic diversity and the multifaceted nature of urban insecurity. High crime indices in these areas reflect not just street-level violence but also systemic issues: unemployment, weak policing, political instability, and organised crime.

Rather than sensationalising danger, this list offers a nuanced lens into cities where vigilance and informed decision-making are essential for navigating the complex realities of 21st-century urban life.

As of 2025, the most dangerous cities in the world are Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), Pretoria (South Africa), and Caracas (Venezuela), with crime indices of 82.0, 81.8, and 81.5, respectively.

The Most Dangerous Cities In The World 2025

Jump to the list of the 100 most dangerous cities in the world.

1. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - Crime Index: 82

Pietermaritzburg tops Numbeo's 2025 Crime Index at 82.0, reflecting chronic violence and insecurity across the KwaZulu-Natal capital. Residents routinely report armed robberies, home invasions, carjackings, and brazen daylight muggings; drug dealing and gang activity intensify fear in poorer northern and western townships.

Murder rates remain among South Africa's highest, driven by entrenched poverty, youth unemployment, and strained, sometimes corrupt, policing. Businesses install razor wire and private guards, while commuters avoid deserted streets after dark. Even central landmarks around Church Street experience smash-and-grab thefts that deter tourism. Persistent infrastructure failures and court backlogs further undermine deterrence, leaving communities trapped in anxiety.

2. Pretoria, South Africa - Crime Index: 81.8

Pretoria ranks second worldwide at 81.8, flagging entrenched danger in South Africa's executive capital. SAPS fourth-quarter 2024/25 statistics reveal murders soaring 66.7 % at Pretoria Central and rampant carjackings in Pretoria West and Mamelodi East, underscoring violent trends across Tshwane precincts. Gauteng still contributes 25 % of national murders, making the metro a hotspot despite a marginal quarterly decline country-wide. Residents and businesses fortify homes with electric fencing, private armed response, and tracker-equipped vehicles, yet brazen daylight robberies, hijackings, and extortion persist along commuter routes, eroding public confidence and deterring tourism. Load-shedding blackouts further embolden organised gangs nightly.

3. Caracas, Venezuela - Crime Index: 81.5

Caracas, ranked third on Numbeo's 2025 Crime Index at 81.5, endures chronic insecurity. The Venezuelan Violence Observatory estimates 48.2 violent deaths per 100,000 residents in 2024, driven by armed robberies, carjackings, gang turf wars, and frequent police shoot-outs; extrajudicial killings alone accounted for 3.3 deaths per 100,000. Megabandas control hillside barrios, running kidnapping-for-ransom and extortion rackets that spill into middle-class districts. Rolling blackouts and cash shortages embolden criminals who exploit darkened streets and ATM queues. The U.S. State Department's Level-4 "Do Not Travel" alert cites pervasive homicide, kidnapping, and wrongful detention risks, underscoring Caracas's reputation as a no-go zone for outsiders.

4. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea - Crime Index: 81.2

Port Moresby ranks fourth globally as a dangerous city, the worst in Oceania. Raskol gangs dominate settlements and main roads, waging armed robberies, machete assaults and carjackings that claim an estimated three murders, four rapes and nearly thirty hijackings each week. Police struggle with understaffing and allegations of brutality, leaving private compounds ringed with razor wire and security guards. Homicide stands around 54 per 100,000 residents, and kidnapping of businesspeople or visiting contractors is rising. The U.S. State Department urges travellers to "reconsider" visits, citing pervasive violence, civil unrest, and piracy even inside the capital's harbour after dark.

5. Johannesburg, South Africa - Crime Index: 80.8

Johannesburg ranks fifth worldwide with a Crime Index of 80.8. Persistent violent crime, armed robberies, hijackings, and house invasions keep homicide near 30 per 100,000 in the metro, while the national murder rate sits at 42. Cable-theft syndicates cripple electricity and rail networks, and gangs hijack inner-city high-rises, forcing venues like the iconic Marabi Club to close. Surging xenophobic extortion targets informal traders; JMPD CCTV grids still struggle to deter brazen daylight crime. May 2025's R2 billion "safe city" budget pledges extra patrols, gunshot sensors, and community courts, yet residents retreat behind private security and load-shedding-proof walls still after dark.

6. Durban, South Africa - Crime Index: 80.6

Durban sits in sixth place, with a Crime Index of 80.6. Political hits, taxi turf wars, and gang violence pushed the metro's murder rate to about 65 per 100,000 residents in 2023/24, its steepest jump in a decade. Cocaine and fentanyl routed through the deep-water harbour feed powerful syndicates that run extortion rackets in townships and hijack container trucks along the N2 corridor. Night-time beach muggings, carjackings around uMlazi, and armed robberies on the Golden Mile keep tourism in retreat, while pervasive corruption blunts police response. Residents rely on private security and load-shedding-proof electrified fencing after dark to feel safe.

7. San Pedro Sula, Honduras - Crime Index: 79.7

San Pedro Sula's homicide rate has fallen dramatically, from 142 per 100,000 residents in 2014 to about 26 per 100,000 in 2023, knocking the city out of the global top-100 list. Yet the industrial hub remains Honduras's epicentre of gang power and drug-route extortion. Barrio 18 and MS-13 still control barrios, taxing shops, buses, and even schoolchildren; 11 percent of Hondurans now pay "war-tax," the highest level ever recorded. President Xiomara Castro's rolling state-of-emergency floods streets with soldiers, but analysts warn disappearances and under-reporting mask true violence. Cocaine trafficking through Puerto Cortés and endemic police corruption fuel persistent carjackings, kidnappings, and femicides, leaving residents barricaded indoors after dark despite the statistical "improvement."

8. Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Crime Index: 78.1

Gqeberha (still called Port Elizabeth) is now South Africa's murder capital, with 70.8 killings per 100,000 residents recorded in 2024/25, and several precincts, Kwazakhele, Motherwell, KwaDwesi, sitting among the nation's five deadliest. Taxi-route shootings, extortion rackets at housing projects and construction sites, and gang wars over meth and copper-cable theft dominate police dockets. BusinessTech reports that SAPS resources are so thin that only one vehicle patrols entire townships at night. Daily Maverick links the spiralling violence to collapsing street-lighting, youth unemployment above 55 percent, and political paralysis inside the Nelson Mandela Bay metro council, and residents organise vigilante patrols for survival.

9. Memphis, Tennessee, United States - Crime Index: 77.4

Memphis still leads the U.S. homicide charts. A record 397 killings in 2023, 63.9 per 100,000, were followed by 129 murders in the first half of 2024, the highest rate nationally despite a 17 % drop. Carjackings undermine the dip: police arrested 124 juveniles for auto theft in 2024 and four more teens after a May 2025 spree. Analysts cite a gun-theft feedback loop, stolen cars often hide firearms, plus juvenile recidivism and short-staffed precincts. WalletHub again ranks Memphis America's least-safe big city, with violent-crime levels roughly double the national mean despite incremental 2024-25 declines, while business districts empty earlier each evening amid heightened fear.

10. Salvador, Brazil - Crime Index: 76.7

Salvador, Bahia's capital, remains Brazil's bloodiest big city. Federal data logged 986 murders in 2023 and 236 in 2024's first quarter, three killings a day. That equals 39.7 homicides per 100,000 residents, placing Salvador 35th on 2025's global violence ranking. Turf wars between PCC-linked traffickers and local bonde gangs dominate the favelas, while extortion crews encroach on tourist districts. Police tactics are equally lethal: Bahia's security forces killed 289 children and teens in 2023, and police shootings have surged 313 % since 2015, the nation's worst record. Young Black men from the city's periphery remain the conflict's principal casualties.

The Takeaway

Numbeo’s 2025 Crime Index shows that extreme urban insecurity is neither random nor evenly distributed globally: eight of the ten riskiest cities cluster in just three countries, South Africa, Brazil and the United States, while Venezuela, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago and Ecuador complete the top twenty. National conditions illuminate this geography of danger. South Africa and Brazil pair world-leading Gini coefficients with chronically under-resourced policing, turning growth hubs into violent hotspots.

In the United States, the worst-affected cities, Memphis, Detroit, Baltimore, Albuquerque, sit in de-industrialised regions where entrenched poverty and ubiquitous firearms push homicide rates above many developing-state averages. Venezuela and Mexico illustrate how state fragmentation and trafficking cartels overwhelm local law-enforcement capacity, whereas Port Moresby, San Pedro Sula, and Port of Spain expose the security vacuum created by limited fiscal capacity in lower-income or island states. Divergent national trajectories thus converge on a single outcome: persistently lethal urban streets.

The 100 Most Dangerous Cities In The World

Updated: 6/12/2025