Top 10 Countries With The Lowest Crime rate

10Sweden

Forget the gloomy, rain-soaked Scandi crime dramas. Northern Europe’s liberal bastion Sweden is one of the safest countries on the planet. In 2015 (the last year the US Department of State holds records for), there were a mere 90 murders in a population of nearly 10 million. If you’re thinking that’s still a lot for a tiny number of citizens, remember that Sweden has as many people living in it as Michigan. In any given year, Detroit alone records waaay more than 90 murders.

9. Austria

This tiny European nation of beer and sausages was once home to one of history’s great empires. The Habsburgs ruled huge swathes of the world from their base here, with various members in charge of everywhere from modern Germany, to Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Bosnia. Although the dynasty collapsed following WWI, their imperial capital of Vienna is still one of the world’s great cities. As a bonus, it’s shockingly safe to visit, too. From a population only a million or so smaller than Sweden, Austria clocks around maybe 40 murders on an average year. Its homicide rate is the 6th lowest in the entire 38-country OECD.

8 Switzerland

The first thing you notice about Switzerland, when you get over all the awe-inspiring natural beauty, is that the country is absolutely awash with guns. The Swiss love guns like Texans love… well. Guns. The country has one of the highest firearm ownership rates in the world, only a few places behind the USA. But while the US is infamous for shootings, crime in Switzerland is incredibly low. In 2014 (the last year we have data for), there were only 41 murders in a population of 8 million.

7. Germany

Germany has the highest population in the whole of the EU, with nearly 15 million more citizens than either of its nearest rivals (France and the UK). On top of that, the country recently absorbed more than one million refugees from Syria and other warzones. Yet despite all this, nearly every single category of crime has been falling steadily since reunification in the 1990s. The only crime that’s skyrocketed in recent years? Shoplifting.


6. Norway

The population of Norway is an astonishingly-tiny 5 million. Know how many of these five million modern-day Vikings were murdered in 2015? Twenty one. If Norway was a US state, it would have the lowest murder rate, and the 3rd lowest number of overall murders in the whole of America. Only sparsely-populated Vermont (pop. 626,000) and New Hampshire (pop. 1.3 million) would have fewer stiffs clogging up police freezers. About the only crime in Norway that is statistically-likely to have any impact on newcomers is burglary.

5. Denmark

We dunno about you, but if we lived in a place where a single beer cost upwards of seven bucks, we’d probably be more inclined to angry outbursts. But what do we know? Demark is so safe that even residents of Norway probably feel they can relax there. The murder rate is the 5th lowest in the entire OECD. Street crime is almost unheard of. Even the drug traffickers who ship heroin through the country frequently eschew violence (at least, on Danish soil).

4. Iceland

In January 2017, a young woman in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik was tragically abducted and murdered while walking home from a bar. While this grim story would probably end there in any other nation, in Iceland it resulted in a public outpouring of grief unmatched in modern times. Vigils were held by candlelight. Tens of thousands marched on the streets. The entire population came together to mark this senseless death. In doing so, they showed the world why Iceland remains one of the safest nations. The people there really, truly, deeply care about one another

3. Japan

Well, look at that. A non-European country for once. An island nation of 127 million, Japan is notorious for its meme-ready weirdness, its ultra-strict work culture, and for being so safe even its Yakuza gangsters refuse to carry guns. The murder rate is the third lowest in the OECD, with fewer than one thousand homicides in 2015. In that same time period, the US – a country with a population less than three times the size of Japan’s – recorded fifteen times that many. It’s fair to say Japan is a very safe country indeed.

2. Luxembourg


Jammed between France, Germany and Belgium, super-rich Luxembourg is one of Europe’s smallest nations. How small? So small it makes Holland look big by comparison. Rhode Island is bigger. But Luxembourg has something the Netherlands and Rhode Island lack. No, not the European Court of Justice. No, not an ‘X’ in its name (seriously, dude, that’s a terrible guess). No, Luxembourg has something far more awesome. It has the lowest violent crime rate, and the second lowest murder rate in the whole of the OECD.

1. Singapore

This is it. The safest country on Earth. Tiny Singapore is home to 5.3 million people crammed into an area almost four times smaller than Rhode Island (pop. 1

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