Feeling safe is a hugely important part of travelling. How are you supposed to fully enjoy a place if you’re too busy worrying about natural disasters, pickpockets and other sinister stuff? If you happen to be planning a trip to the UK, you’ll be relieved to know that it has just been ranked one of the safest countries in the world for travellers.
American company Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection has been judging the safety of countries around the world for the past five years – and it’s just published its ranking of the safest countries in the world for 2024.
The company surveyed a ‘large group’ of American travellers and asked them to judge the safety of all the countries they’d visited in the last five years. To ensure balance, researchers then combine those responses with data from other safety indexes, like the Global Peace Index, Numbeo and GeoSure Global.
According to the World Population Review, the UK has one of the world’s lowest criminality scores. We also ranked fifth for safest places to travel for women, LGBTQ+ and people of colour.
All that said, the UK is far from perfect and it’s always good to keep your wits about you. We actually dropped down the overall ranking quite significantly compared to last year, when we ranked number six in the world for safety.
Obviously, levels of safety will depend a lot on where in the country you are. In its justification for the UK’s position, BHTP mostly focuses on London and advises that people check the safety levels of the specific neighbourhoods they’re staying in.
It added: ‘What goes for any big city around the world goes for London: Keep your eyes and ears open. If you’re suspicious of someone, move away from them. Closely watch the things that matter most to you. In addition, do the little things, like wearing your backpack in front of you when you’re standing in line, or keeping one foot on the strap of a handbag that’s over a chair.’
See which other countries were ranked the safest in the world here.
Stay safe with Time Out
As we said, safety and security has a huge impact on how you enjoy your travels. To make sure you can explore the world and return home in one piece, we’ve put together lists of the best places to travel alone and the world’s most LGBTQ+-friendly cities, according to LGBTQ+ travellers. We’ve also covered the UK’s safest city for cyclists and all of the UK’s top 10 pickpocketing hotspots.
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