Safety Explorer

Compare safety across 95 countries. Filter by safety rating, natural disasters, political stability, women & LGBTQ+ safety, healthcare & terrorism risk.

Best for: Screening countries by safety metricsNot for: Real-time security intelligence

Data last updated: March 2026

Quick answer

The WhereNext Safety Explorer ranks countries on multi-dimensional safety: composite Global Peace Index (IEP), violent crime rate, homicide rate per 100K (UNODC), petty crime + scam frequency, women's safety, LGBTQ+ legal climate, road traffic mortality, natural-disaster risk, terrorism risk, and political stability. Filter by which dimensions matter most to you — solo female travellers, families with children, LGBTQ+ relocators, and high-risk-aversion retirees each weight these very differently. Sources: IEP Global Peace Index 2025, UNODC homicide data, US State Department + UK FCDO travel advisories, ILGA-Europe + ILGA-World LGBTQ+ legal index, OECD Better Life road safety.

Key facts

9+ safety dimensions tracked GPI · violent crime · homicide · petty crime · women's safety · LGBTQ+ legal · road traffic · disaster · terrorism · political stability.
Persona-aware filtering solo female · LGBTQ+ · families · retirees — different weights produce different rankings.
Sources: institutional data only IEP GPI · UNODC homicide · State Dept + FCDO advisories · ILGA legal index · OECD Better Life.
City-level where available country-level GPI for everything; city-level scoring for ~70 flagship destinations.
Pairs with cost-of-living + healthcare safety alone is rarely the only filter — the tool cross-links to /tools/cost-of-living and /tools/healthcare-cost.

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▶How Safety Explorer works

What this tool does

Solves: Which countries are safest for my specific situation (solo female, LGBTQ+, family, etc.)?
You provide: Safety dimensions that matter to you and optional scenario presets.
You get: 95 countries scored across 6 safety dimensions with sortable, filterable rankings.

Scores are based on annual indexes (Global Peace Index, World Bank governance). They reflect country-level trends, not city or neighborhood safety.

FAQ

What safety data does the Safety Explorer use?▼

The tool combines Global Peace Index scores, World Bank political stability indicators, women's safety indices, LGBTQ+ safety ratings, healthcare emergency quality scores, natural disaster risk profiles, and terrorism risk levels — covering all 95 countries in our database.

Can I exclude countries by disaster type?▼

Yes. Filter out countries prone to specific natural disasters — earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, volcanoes, typhoons, or tornadoes. The tool shows each country's primary disaster risks so you can make informed decisions.

How are the safety ratings determined?▼

Overall safety ratings (Very Safe to High Risk) align with Global Peace Index scores and are cross-referenced with political stability data. Individual metrics like women's safety and LGBTQ+ safety use dedicated indices from Georgetown WPS and ILGA World respectively.