Looking to move somewhere safer? Tired of dealing with the too-common occurrence of political violence, mass shootings, and other dangers? You’re not alone, and an increasing number of Americans are actually looking to move to safer countries with universal healthcare, increased worker protections, and higher levels of happiness and life expectancy. Where are these countries and which ones are they? Here is our list of the world’s safest countries.
Why Are We Talking About This?
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It’s hard to overestimate the importance of feeling safe. A sense of security impacts all other aspects of your life, including your relationships, mental and physical health, work, and more. The success of a nation is not independent from the mental well-being of its citizens, so it is not surprising that many of the safest countries in the world are among the most successful.
Background on This List
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What data did we use to create this list? We used a couple of different sources to compare safety and rank the highest countries from each.
Vision of Humanity comes out with a Global Peace Index which ranks every country in the world according to 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators. Some of the indicators include perceived criminality in society, security officers and police, homicides, jailed population, access to weapons, organized conflict, violent demonstrations, violent crime, political instability, political terror, terrorist activities, and UN peacekeeping funding. We used this list to rank the countries here.
Gallup has also come out with their yearly Law and Order Index report for 2023. We cross-referenced Vision of Humanity’s list with Gallup’s. Their list is based on data gathered from qualitative surveys. So, in other words, Gallup measures how global citizens feel, and Vision of Humanity combines feelings and hard data. Through qualitative data, Gallup has found that 72% of the world’s population feel confident in their local police, 71% said they feel safe walking alone at night, 12% said they have had property stolen from them and only 6% said they were assaulted or mugged. This data was collected in 2022, and Gallup only surveyed 141 countries. It isn’t clear how they chose which countries to include in their survey data.
For example, if we look at a country like the United States of America, it ranks 131st safest country in the world, but U.S. citizens rank 52nd in the world for feeling safe.
We also included the data from a few other ranking lists such as the Happiest Countries in the World by The World Happiness Report, The United Nation’s Human Development Index, The Global Health Security Index of 2021, Our World in Data’s Maternal Mortality Ratio of 2020, and Worldometer’s Life Expectancy of the World Population rankings. We included these data because safety is subjective. What exactly are you safe from? Being injured without adequate medical care? Diseases? Death in general? Safety isn’t just about guns and violence.
From seeing a comparison of all these lists, safety might not be the only factor when choosing a good country to live in. One needs to choose what ranking is most important to them.
#20 Belgium
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Belgium is the capital of the European Union and among the first countries in the world to allow assisted suicide. Belgium ranked 39th in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 84/100 and ranked 27th in life expectancy with an average lifespan of 82.46 years.
#19 Malaysia
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Malaysia ranked 37 in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 85/100, and they achieved the rank of 62 in the Human Development Index of 2024. Malaysia has one of the best healthcare systems in Asia and a strong medical tourism industry, all due to its universal healthcare.
#18 Hungary
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Hungary achieved rank 41 in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 84/100. They also have the 70th highest life expectancy in the world with an average of 77.09 years. It boasts a universal healthcare system and is one of the top countries in the world for medical tourism.
#17 Bhutan
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Bhutan was not included in the Law and Order Index from Gallup but it does rank at 17th on the Global Peace Index. Basic healthcare in Bhutan is free and enshrined in the country’s constitution.
Bhutan was also ranked 120th in the world with an average life expectancy of 72.49 years.
#16 The Netherlands
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The Netherlands ranked 25th on the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 87/100 and achieved the 5th rank in The World Happiness Report of 2023.
Also, The Netherlands ranked 5th lowest in the Maternal Mortality Rate ranking in 2020 with one death in every 100,000 births.
#15 Germany
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Germany ranked 15th in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 89/100. Germany also ranked 7th with a high score on the Human Development Index in 2024.
Germany has the 31st highest life expectancy with an average of 82.18 years.
#14 Croatia
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Croatia took the 45th spot in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 83/100 and ranked 40th in the Human Development Index of 2024. Like most other countries on this list, Croatia has a universal healthcare system which adds to their safety ranking.
#13 Finland
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Finland ranked #2 in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 92/100 and ranked 11th in the Human Development Index of 2024.
However, Finland’s greatest claim is that it achieved the #1 spot in The World Happiness Report of 2023, making it the happiest country in the world on a pretty consistent basis. It is not surprising what a high minimum wage, worker protections, and universal healthcare can do for your happiness.
#12 Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic is one of the newest countries on this list and boasts a universal healthcare system like most other successful, happy, developed countries. The Czech Republic ranked 28th highest in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 86/100 The Czech Republic also ranked 32nd in the Human Development Index of 2024.
#11 Canada
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Canada ranked 43rd in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 83/100. It also ranked 15th in the Human Development Index of 2024. The fact that Canada is so similar to the United States in culture, politics, history, media, and many other demographics yet it ranks so high on this list while the United States is nowhere to be seen says a lot about some policies and laws that have made a big difference.
#10 Switzerland
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Switzerland achieved the 8th highest Law and Order Index score from Gallup with a score of 91/100 and was ranked 1st with the Highest Human Development Index of 2024.
Switzerland is also ranked as the 5th healthiest country in the world in the Global Health Security Index of 2021 and has the 4th highest life expectancy in the world at an average of 84.38 years.
#9 Japan
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Japan ranked 31st in the Law and Order Index score from Gallup with a score of 86/100 and ranked 19th in the Human Development Index.
Japan was ranked as the 4th healthiest country in the world by the Global Health Security Index of 2021 and has the 3rd highest life expectancy with an average of 84.95 years.
#8 Slovenia
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Slovenia was ranked 12th highest in the Law and Order Index score from Gallup with a score of 90/100. It also ranked 3rd with one of the lowest maternal mortality rates with 0 deaths out of 100,000 births in 2020.
#7 Portugal
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Portugal was ranked 16th in the Law and Order Index from Gallup with a score of 89/100 and ranked 28th in life expectancy with an average of 82.42 years. One of the many factors that have led to the higher life expectancy in Portugal is the fact that they recently legalized many substances, drugs, and plant medicines, which saw a dramatic decrease in the number of deaths due to overdose.
#6 Singapore
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Unfortunately, Singapore was not included in the Gallup Law and Order Index but it did achieve the 10th rank in the Human Development Index of 2024. It was also ranked as the 8th healthiest country in the world by the Global Health Index of 2021.
Singapore also has the 5th highest life expectancy with an average of 84.27 years.
#5 Austria
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Austria ranked 22nd in the Law and Order Index Score from Gallup with a score of 87/100 and ranked 25th in the Human Development Index in 2024.
Austria also ranks 10th in lowest maternal mortality rates with two deaths out of every 100,000 births. Finally, it has the 25th highest life expectancy with an age of 82.57 years.
#4 New Zealand
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New Zealand earned the 75th highest Law and Order Index Score from Gallup with a score of 78/100 and ranked as the 14th country in the Human Development Index of 2024
New Zealand is the 10th Happiest Country in the world according to the Happiness Report of 2023 and ranked 18th in life expectancy with 83.16 years.
#3 Ireland
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Ireland has the 29th highest Law and Order Index score from Gallup with a score of 86/100 and ranked 9th in the Highest Human Development Index of 2024
Ireland is also the #1 Country with the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world with 0 out of 100,000 deaths in 2020. It ranked at 21st in life expectancy at 82.88 years.
#2 Denmark
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Denmark ranked 9th highest in the Law and Order Index Score from Gallup with a score of 90/100 and has the 8th highest human development index in 2024.
This country ranks as the 2nd happiest country in the world in The World Happiness Report of 2023 and has the 6th lowest maternal mortality rate with two deaths out of every 100,000 births.
#1 Iceland
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The land of Vikings has been ranked the #1 Safest Country for the 14th year in a row and ranked 3rd in the world with the highest Law and Order Index Score from Gallup with a score of 92/100.
Iceland was also ranked as the 3rd Healthiest Country in the World by the Global Health Security Index in 2021 and the 3rd happiest country in the world by The World Happiness Report of 2023.
Finally, Iceland has the 20th highest life expectancy at 82.96 years.
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