UAE, Qatar and Oman ranked among world’s safest places as UK and US languish

Emirates secures second place, behind only Andorra in safety rankings

People enjoy the good weather with family and friends on the Corniche in Abu Dhabi. Ravindranath K / The National

The UAE is the second safest place in the world, according to the results of a survey.

Only Andorra ranked higher than the Emirates in the list compiled by online database Numbeo. The Middle East and North Africa region was particularly well-represented in the study with Qatar being named in third place and Oman coming in fifth. Saudi Arabia was named as the 14th safest place in the world with Bahrain also making the top 20, in 16th place.

The UAE's place was unchanged year-on-year, having also come second last year. The same can be said for Andorra, Qatar and Oman. Saudi Arabia saw a big improvement, climbing from 26th to 14th while Bahrain dropped slightly from 13th to 16th. The UK dropped from 84th to 87th while the US maintained its position in 89th place as the western powers languished on the list.

Palestine was named as the world's 61st safest place, despite the war between Israel and Gaza. Ukraine, at war with Russia, was named as the 80th safest place on the planet. There were 147 nations listed in the poll which said Venezuela was the least safe of all.

How does the ranking system work?

Numbeo's data is derived from surveys conducted by visitors to their website. These surveys are exclusively focused on crime levels, with Numbeo putting together a crime index and safety index twice a year annually. The index uses data no more than 36 months old, with cities or countries selected for inclusion based on a minimum number of contributors.

The crime index is an estimation of the overall level of crime in a given city, territory or country with a scale rating that goes from one to 100. The safety index is worked out as the antithesis of this. For instance, earlier this year Abu Dhabi topped Numbeo's list of the world's safest cities for the ninth consecutive year with a score of 88.4 on the safety index, the highest on the list, and 11.6 on the crime index, the lowest on the list.

Numbeo lists the following questions as the key indicators assessed in the survey:

1. General perception of crime levels.
2. Perceived safety: Survey responses from residents and visitors regarding their feelings of safety while walking during daylight and at night.
3. Concerns about specific crimes: Survey questions about worries regarding mugging, robbery, car theft, physical attacks by strangers, harassment in public places and discrimination based on factors like skin colour, ethnicity, gender or religion.
4. Property crimes: Assessment of the extent of property-related crimes, such as burglary, theft or vandalism.
5. Violent crimes: Evaluation of the perception of violent crimes, including assault, homicide or sexual offences.