Key takeaways
- On Numbeo’s 2026 mid-year ranking, the United Arab Emirates has a safety index of 86.4, second to Andorra (86.5) out of 148 countries.
- The ranking is based on surveys of website visitors about how safe they feel, not on police or government statistics.
- It is a perception index. It says nothing about local laws, scams, health risks or political developments that affect travellers.
- Before you travel, check your government’s official travel advice.
This article is general information, not travel or legal advice.
What the ranking says
Numbeo is a website that collects user-submitted data on cost of living, crime and similar topics. Its Crime Index by Country, 2026 mid-year edition, lists 148 countries. The countries at the safe end are:
| Safety rank | Country | Safety index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andorra | 86.5 |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates | 86.4 |
| 3 | Qatar | 84.8 |
| 4 | Taiwan | 82.9 |
| 5 | Macao (China) | 81.8 |
| 6 | Oman | 81.7 |
For comparison, Numbeo gives the United States a safety index of 50.8 and the United Kingdom 51.8. Venezuela, Papua New Guinea and Haiti are at the other end, with safety indexes below 20 in the table we read. The crime index is the opposite scale: the UAE’s is 13.6, which Numbeo’s categories call “very low,” while the US’s is 49.2, “moderate.”
How the number is made
Numbeo explains that its data “is derived from surveys answered by website visitors.” People give answers from strongly negative to strongly positive, which Numbeo scales from 0 to 100. The questions cover:
- the general level of crime,
- feeling safe alone during the day and at night,
- worry about burglary, mugging, car theft, assault and insults,
- how big a problem drugs, property crime, violent crime and corruption are.
Numbeo says its index is compiled from data from the past five years, and that a city or country needs a minimum number of contributors to be included. It filters out suspicious submissions with spam-detection software.
What the ranking can’t tell you
- It measures feelings, not crime counts. Numbeo itself says its index “is based user-contributed perceptions, which may differ from official government statistics.” People who answer the survey are not a random sample of the population.
- Official statistics aren’t a clean alternative. Numbeo points out that countries record and report crime differently, so government figures are hard to compare across borders.
- It says nothing about laws. Visitors can face legal risks that have nothing to do with street crime. Check your own government’s travel advice and the local rules before you go. We couldn’t read the US State Department’s travel advisory for this article, so we don’t summarise it here.
- It changes. The index updates twice a year, and past rankings can differ. The old version of this article, for example, was written from a mid-2025 list.
Other rankings
Safety rankings use different methods and give different answers. The Global Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, measures peacefulness using societal safety, conflict and militarisation, not perceived street crime, and its top countries are different from Numbeo’s. We haven’t re-read the latest edition, so look it up if you want to compare.
Frequently asked questions
Is the UAE the second safest country? On Numbeo’s 2026 mid-year survey ranking, yes, by a hair behind Andorra. Other rankings use other methods.
Can I rely on Numbeo for travel planning? Use it as one data point about perceived safety. Pair it with official travel advice and recent news.
Why is the US ranked lower? Numbeo’s index reflects how safe survey respondents feel. It doesn’t explain why, and it isn’t a crime-statistics ranking.
Information checked on: October 30, 2026. Rankings are updated twice a year, so check Numbeo for the latest.
Sources
- Numbeo, Crime Index by Country 2026 Mid-Year (numbeo.com)
- Numbeo, Understanding Crime Indexes (numbeo.com)