The 2026 Travel Safety Index: What 1034 Cities Tell Us About Where to Go

The headline number: 79.1/100

Across 1034 cities with finalised composite scores, the mean is 79.1/100. The median sits at 80/100 — half of all cities Kakapo tracks score higher. The bottom 10% scores 65/100 or below; the top 10% scores 90/100 or above. Most cities cluster in the 70-85 band: the score range where "you can travel here, but mind the sub-scores" applies.

Distribution by safety band

Kakapo's score bands aren't arbitrary — each is calibrated against the WHO global crime + injury database and the consolidated advisory levels of seven major Western foreign ministries. Here's how the 1034 cities distribute:

Regional means: which continent ranks safest

Aggregating to the regional level reveals a clear pattern. Western Europe + East Asia capitals + Oceania share the top tier; the Middle East splits sharply between Gulf city-states and conflict-affected countries; Africa's mean is suppressed by the active-advisory countries in the Sahel and Horn.

Sub-score breakdown across all cities

The composite score is a weighted blend of four sub-scores: personal-safety, transport, healthcare, and night-safety. Across all 1034 cities the means are:

Night safety scores systematically lower than personal-safety in the same city — the global gap is meaningful. The implication for travellers: a city's "is X safe" answer is almost always different at 11pm than at noon. Single-number composite scores hide this.

Top 12 safest cities in 2026

The cities clustering at the top of the index in 2026 — composite scores 94+ — share a profile: low petty-crime baseline, robust late-night transit, English-speaking healthcare infrastructure within 30 minutes for most central districts, and no active national advisory.

Bottom 12 cities by score

The cities at the bottom of the published index aren't necessarily "unsafe to visit" — some have active advisories but are still visited by experienced travellers (humanitarian, journalism, business). The score tells you what risk level the data supports; it doesn't tell you whether to go.

Methodology in brief

Every Kakapo score is a weighted composite of: (1) national travel advisories from seven major Western foreign ministries (US State Department, UK FCDO, Canada Smartraveller, Australia Smartraveller, France Conseils aux voyageurs, Germany Auswärtiges Amt, New Zealand SafeTravel), (2) local crime indices including Numbeo and the city's police-released stats where available, (3) WHO Global Burden of Disease for medical-infrastructure scoring, (4) air-quality APIs (IQAir, WAQI) for the ambient-health component, and (5) per-source weighting calibrated against the published advisory level for the relevant destination.

The full methodology — per-source weights, recalculation cadence, profile-adjustment logic — is at https://kakapo.travel/about/methodology. Sub-scores recalculate automatically as advisories change (typically within 24 hours of a new advisory).

How to use this for trip planning

The score is a starting point, not the answer. We recommend:

1. Check the composite for a broad "is this destination in my risk band?" gate.
2. Drill into sub-scores: a 78 with healthcare 60 vs a 78 with night-safety 60 are different trips.
3. Read the destination's editorial guide — Kakapo has 600+ at /blog — for neighbourhood, scam, and tactical detail.
4. Cross-reference with your home country's foreign-ministry advisory page (Kakapo aggregates these but they're the primary source).
5. Adjust for your traveller profile — solo female, family, LGBTQ+, age, mobility — using the profile view on the live report.

Companion studies

Deeper cuts of the same 2026 dataset, each free to cite:

• The Safest Cities for Solo Female Travellers 2026 — ranked on personal and after-dark safety.
• The Night-Safety Gap — the cities where safety changes most after dark.
• The Safety Reputation Gap — cities travellers fear that actually score safe (and the reverse).

Cite this study

This analysis is free to cite in journalism, research, or content — all we ask is a link back. The underlying data recomputes on every page load, so the linked URL always reflects the latest scores. Copy the attribution below: