What is the safest country in Africa?

Mauritius is the safest country in Africa in the latest ranking, ahead of the Seychelles and Morocco. It owes its position to low violent crime and solid political stability, which lift it above the rest of the continent on our five pillars.

Are these countries safe for solo female travellers?

The index measures general safety, not a metric specific to women, so we do not publish a dedicated ranking for solo female travel. The pillar most relevant to solo travellers is public safety and crime, which carries the heaviest weight. The countries at the top of the ranking, such as Singapore, the Nordic countries and Japan, also score highest on that pillar. Always check your government travel advice for your destination.

Which countries are safest to live in?

This index ranks safety for travel, not livability. Countries that score well on political stability and health security, like the Nordic countries and Switzerland, tend to rank high for residents too, but we do not publish a dedicated best-place-to-live score.

What are the cheapest and safest countries to travel to?

Among the higher-ranked countries, Portugal, Estonia, Czechia and Slovenia pair a strong safety score with a lower cost of travel than Western Europe. In Asia, Japan and South Korea rank high on safety while staying reasonable outside peak season.

Which countries have the lowest crime rate?

The public safety and crime pillar of the index is measured mainly through the intentional homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants, from UNODC and World Bank data. Singapore, Japan, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain score 100 on it, the best value measured. Theft and other petty crime have no comparable worldwide data, so the index does not rank them.

HelloSafe Safety Index2026 edition · 181 countries · 5 pillars

The safest countries in the world in 2026

Safest countries in the world in 2026: one score out of 100 per country, from public data only (crime, health, stability, climate, cyber).

Global top 3 · 2026score /100

90–10080–9070–80under 70

A. Fruchard
Co-Founder & Travel Insurance Expert

Last updated: October 22, 2026100 % public, traceable data

Key facts to remember

What is the safest country in the world in 2026?

181countries ranked (50 in the previous edition)

64.2world average score /100

98.7Singapore, the safest country

5pillars, 100 % public data sources

Key takeaways · 20-second read

Singapore (98.7), Switzerland (98.4) and Norway (98.0) are the three safest countries to travel to.
Europe places 12 countries in the top 15; Asia enters with Singapore (1st) and Japan (8th), Oceania with Australia (10th).
Mauritius (76.6) is the safest country in Africa, Canada (93.3) leads the Americas, the United States ranks 38th (82.3).
Coverage grew from 50 to 181 countries on a fully reproducible, public-data model: UNODC, World Bank, WHO, ITU, ND-GAIN.

How is the index built? See the methodology ↓

01 · World ranking

2026 ranking of the safest countries in the world

Every published country ranked worldwide on the same 0–100 score. Click a country for its five pillar scores.

Search a country…

#1 worldwide · #1 in Asia

Singapore

98.8/10090–100

Singapore scores 98.8/100, #1 worldwide and #1 in Asia. Its strongest pillar is Public safety & crime (100.0), its weakest Political stability (96.6). Before you go, look for cover for trip cancellation and early return.

Pillar breakdown

Public safety & crime 35 %100.0

Health security 25 %98.1

Political stability 20 %96.6

Environmental risk 15 %99.9

Cybersecurity 5 %99.8

Pillar scores on 100, weighted into the overall 98.8.

Insurance for Singapore →

02 · Where the safe countries are

The geography of safety

Every published country in its tier colour. Click a tier to show or hide it, click a country for its rank and score.

Showing 132 of 132 published countries · click a country for its info

Why are some countries grey? All 181 countries are scored, but this page only shows the 15 safest of each region. Scores below that line exist in our dataset and are not mapped, to keep the index a ranking of safe destinations rather than a warning list. What this study does not show ↓

03 · Regional rankings

Safest countries by region

Each continent ranked on its own: the 15 safest countries of each region, with their place in the world ranking. This is where most readers start. Each region also has its own ranking: the safest countries in Africa, in Europe, in the Americas, in Asia and in the Middle East.

Europe · average 85.5 · 41 countries scored, 15 published

Safest countries in Europe

1Switzerland98.5#2
2Norway98.1#3
3Sweden97.4#4
4Finland96.8#5
5Denmark96.6#6
6Iceland96.2#8
7Luxembourg96.2#9
8Netherlands94.2#11
9Ireland94.1#12
10Germany94.0#13
11United Kingdom93.7#14
12Austria93.4#16
13Estonia90.8#19
14France90.7#20
15Slovenia90.3#21

Reader service: in high-ranked destinations where private healthcare is expensive (Singapore, Japan, South Korea), compare policies by medical limit with our travel insurance comparison. The United States, 38th, is covered in our guide to travel insurance for the USA. Also check the medical repatriation cover before a long-haul trip. To check which destinations your passport opens without a visa beforehand, see the HelloSafe Passport Index.

Reading the results

The safest countries to visit, to live in and for women

The safest countries to visit in 2026The ten safest countries to visit are Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, Luxembourg and Australia. They are the only ten of the 181 countries that score 90 or more on all five pillars. Outside Europe, the highest scores belong to Singapore (98.7), Japan (96.1), Australia (95.7), Canada (93.3) and New Zealand (92.8).

The safest countries to live inThe index is built for travellers, but three of its pillars matter just as much to residents: health security, political stability and environmental risk. Only Singapore, Switzerland and Norway score 95 or more on all three. We do not publish a separate score for quality of life, cost or jobs.

The safest countries for women travelling aloneNo pillar of the index is specific to women, so we do not rank countries for women travelling alone. The closest measure is public safety and crime, the pillar with the heaviest weight: Singapore and Japan score 100, South Korea 99.5. Harassment and local norms are not measured; check your government's travel advice and the advice for women it often includes.

04 · How we score

Methodology

Built by HelloSafe's travel insurance team, independently of our comparison. Every figure comes from a public international dataset, so the ranking can be reproduced from the sources.

Score /100= weighted sum35 %Public safety & crime25 %Health security20 %Political stability15 %Environmental risk5 %Cybersecurity

SourcesUNODC, World Bank WGI, WHO, ITU GCI, ND-GAIN.

ProcessingMin-max 0–100, negatives inverted, outliers winsorised, gaps filled with regional median.

RobustnessRank correlation of 0.97 with equal weights.

Formula Safety Index = 0.35 × Safety + 0.25 × Health + 0.20 × Stability + 0.15 × Environment + 0.05 × Cyber

What this study does not show

Only the 15 safest countries of each region are published; lower scores stay in the dataset.
Micro-states under 100,000 inhabitants are excluded.
Sovereign states only: UN member states are ranked; territories are excluded, and Taiwan is not covered (no World Bank data).
For 42 countries without a recent homicide figure, the latest UNODC value (2012 or later) or the WHO 2021 estimate is used.
No detail within a country: regions and cities can differ widely from the national score.
Relative, not absolute: a score compares countries with each other, it does not certify a destination as risk-free.
Not a travel advisory: always check your government's official advice before travelling.
Data window: latest release of each source at publication, so recent events may not be reflected yet.

New in 202650 → 181 countries100 % public dataHealth 15 → 25 %Singapore #1

Questions on the method? Contact us →

05 · For journalists

Visuals you can publish

This is exactly what your readers will see: the live block, with its credit link. Free to reproduce; a PNG version is included for CMSs that strip iframes.

HelloSafe Safety Index 2026

The safest countries in the world90–10080–9070–80under 70Source: HelloSafe, The safest countries in the world in 2026

World map · live embed, PNG version includedDownload PNG

“The three safest countries to travel to are Singapore, Switzerland and Norway, each scoring above 98 out of 100 on the HelloSafe Safety Index, which rates 181 countries across five dimensions.”

“Mauritius is the safest country in Africa, ahead of the Seychelles and Morocco, according to the HelloSafe Safety Index.”

“HelloSafe rebuilt its Safety Index on public, traceable data (UNODC, the World Bank, the WHO, the ITU and ND-GAIN) and expanded coverage to 181 countries.”

Quotes by Pauline Laurore, travel insurance expert and author of the index · Contact us

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

Singapore tops the latest HelloSafe Safety Index with 98.7 out of 100, ahead of Switzerland (98.4) and Norway (98.0). It leads on public safety and cybersecurity and scores near the top on every other pillar.

Index updatesThe 2027 ranking is on its way. Be the first to see it.New scores, new countries, the dataset and the press kit, in your inbox on publication day.

Once a year, plus corrections. Privacy policy

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