Four South African cities have been ranked among the world’s most violent, and Cape Town came in at number eight. This global list is determined by the Mexican Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, and is released annually.
The list ranks the world’s 50 most violent cities, and this is determined by the number of murders reported in each city. They only considers cities where the population exceeds 300 000 residents, and the murder statistics of these cities must be easily accessible.
Johannesburg has returned to the list for the first time since 2015. If you only look at the numbers and not averages, Cape Town has recorded the highest number of murders of all countries in the top 50 – it has 3 065 murders in a population of 4.5-million residents. Tijuana, which is number one on the ranking, recorded 2 367 murders in a population of 1.8-million residents.
The list is is dominated by cities in South America, South Africa and Jamaica.
Cape Town was featured in the top 10 in 2015 – where it was ranked as the 9th most violent city in the world. Over the years, there was a gradual improvement and the city officially settled at number 15 in 2017.
The Mother City maintained this position for the 2018/19 ranking, but the murder rate spiked to an average of 66.4 murders per 100 000 people.
For the 2019/20 list, the average murder rate increased to 68.3 murders per 100 000 people.
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