Cape Town’s recent spike in murder rates has led to it climbing the global ranking of the world’s most violent cities, which may come as no surprise as South African Police Services (SAPS) stats reflected that this is the murder capital of the country.
The Mother City now ranks as the 11th most violent city in the world according to a list compiled by the Mexican Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.
Last year, the city was ranked at number 15, but has moved up by 4 spaces on the list in just 12 months.
The data from the report was based on the number of murders per 100 000 people, and only takes into consideration cities with populations larger than 300 000.
In 2019, the majority of the most violent cities are based in the Americas – particularly South America and Brazil.
South Africa is the only non-American country to feature on the list.
The most recent list released – which compiled statistics from 2018 – stipulates that Cape Town reached this ranking as it has a murder rate of 66.4 per 100 000 people. In the 2017 ranking, there was an average of 62.3 per 100 000 people.
In 2018, Cape Town had a population of 4 322 031 people and more than 2 868 homicides.
Two other South African cities feature on the list, including Durban and Nelson Mandela Bay – these rank at 47th and 45th respectively.
Despite its reputation for high levels of crime, Johannesburg did not crack the top 50 on the ranking. The City of Gold was last featured in 2015, where it was ranked at number 47.
According to data collated by SAPS, there were 20 336 murders committed in South Africa between April 2017 and March 2018, putting the country’s murder rate at close to 36 people per 100 000 of the population. Simply put, this means that an average of 57 people were murdered on a daily basis.
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