Lagos ranks 27th among world’s most crime-prone cities – Report

Lagos has been ranked the 27th most crime-prone city in the world, with a crime index of 69.1 points, according to the 2026 Numbeo Crime Index.

The ranking placed Nigeria’s commercial capital among 406 cities assessed globally, with a safety index of 30.9 points.

The Numbeo index, which measures perceived crime levels and safety across cities, classified Lagos as having a high crime level, a category covering scores between 60.01 and 80.

The report which was obtained by PUNCH Online from the Numbeo website on Saturday, placed Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and Caracas in Venezuela jointly at the top of the global ranking, with crime indices of 81.4 points each.

Pretoria, South Africa, followed with 81.3 points, while Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg, also in South Africa, recorded 81.1 and 80.8 points, respectively.

Other cities in the top 10 included Durban, South Africa, with 80.5 points; San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with 79.9 points; Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with 78.3 points; Memphis, United States, with 78 points; and Salvador, Brazil, with 76.7 points.

Lagos ranked ahead of several major international cities, including Oakland, New Orleans, Marseille and Mexico City, which recorded crime indices of 68.6, 67.7, 67.1 and 66.1 points, respectively.

The index also showed that Lagos had a lower safety score than Nairobi, Kenya, which recorded a crime index of 58.8 and a safety index of 41.2.

At the other end of the ranking, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates had the lowest crime index among the 406 cities, recording 11.2 points and a safety index of 88.8.

Ajman, also in the UAE, followed with 12 points, while Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Doha recorded 14.7, 15.3 and 15.4 points, respectively.

Explaining its methodology, Numbeo said, “Crime Index estimates the overall level of crime in a city or country.”

It added that the index was based on survey responses covering general perceptions of crime, safety during the day and at night, and concerns about specific offences.

According to the platform, the assessment also considers concerns about “mugging, robbery, car theft, physical attacks, public harassment, and bias-motivated incidents”, as well as property and violent crimes.

On how the data were obtained, Numbeo said, “The data in this section is derived from surveys answered by website visitors, structured similarly to established scientific and governmental surveys.”

It explained that individual responses were assigned numerical values between -2, indicating a strongly negative perception, and +2, indicating a strongly positive perception, before being scaled from zero to 100.

The platform said it also deployed spam-filtering algorithms to exclude submissions from users exhibiting suspicious behaviour and selected cities based on a minimum number of contributors to ensure statistical significance.

It stated that its current index was continuously updated using data collected over the preceding five years, while its semi-annual index was calculated twice a year by incorporating the latest submissions into historical data.

However, Numbeo cautioned that its findings should not be confused with official government crime statistics.

“It’s important to note that the Numbeo’s Crime Index is based user-contributed perceptions, which may differ from official government statistics,” the platform stated.

It described the index as a comparative tool for assessing the relative safety of cities and countries, helping individuals understand perceived crime levels in different locations.

The platform also noted that differences in crime-reporting practices, possible manipulation or underreporting of official figures, and limited availability of crime data in some countries could affect comparisons based solely on government statistics.