Monaco

Is Monaco safe to visit?

Yes, and by a wide margin. Monaco's police recorded 1,055 offences in 2025 for a principality of 38,857 residents, and none of them was a homicide or an armed robbery. Street crime, the kind visitors notice, came to 328 offences, under one a day. We score Monaco 93, higher than France (82), which surrounds it, and just above Luxembourg (91).

A warning about the numbers first. Monaco is tiny. UNODC publishes no regular crime rate for it, and WHO's road estimate for 2021, zero deaths, covers a single year. What exists comes from Monaco's Direction de la Sûreté Publique, which presents its figures each January, and from IMSEE, the statistics institute. With so few residents, a single case can double or halve a rate. Read every number on this page as a range, not a ranking.

Why is crime so low in Monaco?

Mostly because of policing on a scale few countries come close to. The Sûreté Publique has about 620 staff, one for every 60 or so residents. In 2025 its control centre ran 1,387 cameras around the clock, officers carried out more than 134,000 identity checks, about 400 a day, and police answered 12,380 call-outs. Entry points by road and rail are few and watched.

That does not mean nothing happens. Offences rose in 2025, mostly minor ones: careless injuries, criminal damage, simple thefts and online fraud. The cases that made the news were thefts of luxury handbags on Boulevard des Moulins, watches taken by a trick at the Top Marques show, and a robbery at a petrol station. Police solved about half of all cases (52%).

Where visitors actually lose things

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary's warning is not about Monaco itself but about getting there. It reports thefts on trains to and from Monaco and at Nice airport, especially in the car rental parks, where bags disappear while drivers load their cars. The coastal line between Nice, Monaco and the Italian border is crowded in summer, and pickpockets work it.

• Keep bags on your lap or between your feet on Riviera trains, not on the rack by the door.
• At Nice airport car rental, lock the car while you load and never leave a bag on the ground.
• Do not wear an expensive watch on crowded trains and platforms; Monaco's own thefts often target luxury goods.

Inside Monaco, the rules on dress catch more visitors than thieves do. You can be fined for walking around in swimwear, bare-chested or barefoot anywhere except beaches and bathing areas.

Grand Prix week and big events

The Formula One Grand Prix in late spring brings the largest crowds of the year. Roads close for days, temporary grandstands go up on the harbour, and the trains from Nice and Menton run at crush capacity. Policing is at its heaviest, so serious crime is not the risk. Crowd crush on stairs and platforms, heat, dehydration, and phone and wallet theft are.

Arrive early, know your exit, carry water and hearing protection, and agree a meeting point in case mobile networks slow down. The same advice, on a smaller scale, applies to the Yacht Show in September and the New Year's Eve fireworks.

Roads and getting around

Monaco's road numbers swing more than anywhere else. WHO estimatesWHO road-death estimateThe World Health Organization's estimate of road traffic deaths per 100,000 people in a country, adjusted for deaths that police statistics miss.More in the glossary zero road deaths in 2021, the figure we score on. Police counted six deaths in three crashes in 2023, none in 2024, and one fatal crash in late 2025. On paper that is about 6 deaths per 100,000 residents over three years, but more than 65,000 people work in Monaco and most commute in from France and Italy, so the risk per road user is lower than the per-resident rate suggests. Injury crashes fell from 161 in 2024 to 150 in 2025, and positive drink-driving tests from 134 to 90. A November 2025 law brought in random breath and drug tests.

Driving is still hard work: steep hairpins, tunnels, scooters filtering between lanes and pedestrians everywhere. You do not need a car. Monaco's bus network, the train station and a system of free public lifts and escalators link the harbour with the upper town, and the whole country is walkable.

Health and natural hazards

Healthcare is excellent, centred on the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, and CDC lists only routine vaccines plus hepatitis A and B. Monaco is not in the EU, so the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary points out that EU reciprocal health arrangements do not apply; a travel insurance policy that covers both Monaco and France is the simple answer. For an ambulance, call 112 from a mobile or 18 from a landline.

The natural risks are summer heat on steep, sunny streets, autumn storms that bring heavy rain and high swell on the sea walls, and jellyfish in some summers. The FCDO advises getting local advice before swimming. The Ligurian coast has a moderate earthquake risk, but damaging quakes are rare.

How we scored it

Violent crime (96) is the strongest factor: no homicide or armed robbery in 2025 and very dense policing. Conflict (92), health (92) and petty crime (88) are also strong. Natural hazards (85) is the weakest factor, because of exposure to Riviera storms and heat. Road safety (97) follows WHO's estimate of no deaths in 2021, trimmed a little for the six deaths in 2023. Confidence is medium because Monaco has no UNODC series, WHO's road figure covers one year and the police figures come from annual press briefings.