A new ranking is helping travellers get a better picture of which countries are the safest before planning their next trip.
Insurance company HelloSafe recently published its first Travel Safety Index, which provides an overview of the security situation in countries around the world.
The ranking is based on a rating scale from 0-100, where 100 is assigned to the least safe countries and 0 is for the safest.
HelloSafe used 35 criteria divided into the following main categories: occurrence of natural disasters, violence in society, involvement in armed conflict (internal or external), health infrastructure, and militarization. Each of these categories was weighted differently, and assigned different points.
“These indicators provide a detailed picture of the security situation in each country, taking into account multiple dimensions that are essential for understanding the threats and challenges that each nation may face,” stated the insurance company.
According to HelloSafe, Iceland is currently the safest country in the world, scoring 18.23 points out of 100.
Singapore followed with 19.99 points and Denmark was third with 20.05.
Visit HelloSafe Canada for more tools.
HelloSafe noted that the majority of the safest countries (12 of 15) are in Europe. This includes Switzerland, which placed fifth with 20.51 points, the Czech Republic (21.19 points), and Slovenia (21.44).
The ranking highlighted that the most dangerous countries face many threats, including natural disasters and violence.
The Philippines had the highest unsafety score with 82.32 points out of 100, followed by Colombia (79.21 points) and Mexico (78.42 points).
Visit HelloSafe Canada for more tools.
India and Russia rounded off the top five most dangerous countries with 77.86 and 75.65 points, respectively.
The US was named the 14th most unsafe country with a score of 59.47.
As for Canada, it is the safest country in North America, with a score of 40.03 points.
Visit HelloSafe Canada for more tools.
To put that in perspective, Canada ranks slightly higher in safety than Japan, which scored 41.64 points but placed lower than France’s 36 points.
HelloSafe also provided a more detailed safety ranking breakdown by region on its website.
What do you think about how Canada scored? Let us know in the comments.