With residents getting violently killed, mugged and gang crime rampant, the most dangerous cities in the world include Los Cabos in Mexico, Caracas in Venezuela and Acapulco in Mexico.
Compiled by the Mexican Anti Violence Think Tank, each city was ranked in accordance to homicide rates per 100,000 residents and most of the cities are based in South America.
Most of the violence is due to drug trafficking and gang wars along with wide spread poverty.
“Narcotics are the biggest black-market earner of all. Estimated to be worth more than three hundred billion dollars a year, the global industry has pumped huge resources into criminal empires decade after decade,” wrote Ioan Grillo, author of Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America.
“So that amount of money, $100 billion a year, 10 years, a trillion dollars, 30 years, $3 trillion. That amount of money pumps in these organizations… buying more guns, paying more assassins, bribing more police, bribing more politicians … and that is why the region right now, Latin American and the Caribbean, are at a boiling point,” Grillo told Business Insider.
And what about the most dangerous place in Australia? In a Roy Morgan Research report from 2016, it was found that Australia’s inner city suburbs are becoming safer, but outer suburbs are where locals say crime is getting worse. In Sydney, locals from Bradbury, Lakemba, Fairfield, Guildford and South Granville say crime is becoming a bigger problem in their areas.
Here are the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world and why:
1. Caracas, Venezuela
Caracas was cited as the most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 119.87 homicides per 100,000 residents.
2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras
San Pedro was cited as the second most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 111.03 homicides per 100,000 residents.
3. San Salvador, El Salvador
San Salvador was cited as the third most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 108.54 homicides per 100,000 residents.
4. Acapulco, Mexico
Acapulco was cited as the fourth most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 104.73 homicides per 100,000 residents.
5. Maturin, Venezuela
Maturin was cited as the fifth most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 86.45 homicides per 100,000 residents.
6. Distrito Central, Honduras
Distrito Central was cited as the sixth most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 73.51 homicides per 100,000 residents.
7. Valencia, Venezuela
Valencia was cited as the seventh most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 72.31 homicides per 100,000 residents.
8. Palmira, Colombia
Palmira was cited as the eighth most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded
70.88 homicides per 100,000 residents.
9. Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town was cited as the ninth most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded had 65.53 homicides per 100,000 residents.
10. Cali, Colombia
Cali was cited as the tenth most dangerous city in the world as there was a recorded 64.27 homicides per 100,000 residents.