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SafetyScorer

Ranking

Safest Cities in Asia 2026

Every city we cover in East, Southeast, South and Central Asia, from Tokyo and Seoul to Samarkand, Bali and Delhi. Middle East cities such as Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Antalya are not on this list. Each score is built for visitors. Open any city for the crime figures, the scams to expect and the sources.

Updated · Scores update with each page

The ranking

  1. Singapore

    Singapore is one of the easiest cities in the world to walk around at any hour. Violent crime and theft are rare. What visitors actually deal with is tropical heat, phone and online scams, the occasional overcharge at electronics shops, and alcohol and drug laws that are far stricter than at home.

    Score 91, grade A

  2. Kyoto

    Kyoto is one of the safest cities you can visit, with very little violent or street crime. The things to plan for are packed buses and temples, narrow lanes shared with cars, intense summer heat, and earthquake and flood risk in the Kyoto basin.

    Score 90, grade A

  3. Tokyo

    Tokyo is one of the safest big cities in the world for visitors, by day and by night. Watch out for drink spiking and inflated bar bills in nightlife districts, and know what to do in an earthquake.

    Score 89, grade A

  4. Hong Kong

    Hong Kong is a very safe city for visitors on the street, with pickpocketing and robbery at very low levels. The things to plan for are typhoon season from May to November, phone and online fraud, crowds in nightlife areas, and national security laws that apply to what you say and post.

    Score 88, grade A

  5. Osaka

    Osaka is a very safe city for visitors, a little rougher around the edges than Tokyo but with very little violent crime. The things to plan for are nightlife touts and bar bills in Minami, bag theft in crowds, extreme summer heat, typhoons and the long-term risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake.

    Score 87, grade A

  6. Seoul

    Seoul is a very safe city for visitors, including at night and for women travelling alone. Crime against foreigners is rare. The risks worth planning for are packed nightlife streets (the 2022 Itaewon crush killed 159 people), illegal filming, fine dust in spring, and heavy summer rain.

    Score 87, grade A

  7. Taipei

    Taipei is a very safe city for visitors, with almost no street robbery and busy, well-lit streets late at night. Plan for scooters and turning cars at crossings, a fast-growing fraud problem, typhoons from July to September and earthquakes. Tension with China has not changed travel advice.

    Score 87, grade A

  8. Macau

    Macau is very safe on the street, with violent crime and road deaths at very low levels. The risks are typhoons and storm surge from May to November, crowds at the main sights, crime around casinos including illegal lending to gamblers, and laws that limit speech and consular help.

    Score 85, grade A

  9. Shanghai

    Shanghai is very safe on the street, with little violent crime and very high feelings of safety at night. The risks are e-bikes and turning cars, air well above the WHO guideline, late-summer typhoons, tea-house scams and mainland China's legal risks, including exit bans.

    Score 84, grade B

  10. Beijing

    Beijing is one of the safest big cities in the world on the street, and its air has improved from 89.5 µg/m³ of PM2.5 in 2013 to 27 in 2025. The risks are e-bikes and traffic, flash floods in summer, tea-house scams, and the legal risks of mainland China, where travel advice warns of exit bans and detention.

    Score 82, grade B

  11. Bukhara

    Bukhara is one of the safest stops on the Silk Road, with little violent crime and an old town that stays calm late into the evening. The real risks are summer afternoons near 40°C, hospitals the FCDO calls generally poor, taxis without rear seat belts, and steady overcharging in the trading domes.

    Score 74, grade B

  12. Samarkand

    Samarkand is a safe city for visitors, with very little violent crime and a well-patrolled old centre. The real risks are the roads of the surrounding region, which had the most traffic deaths in Uzbekistan in 2025, limited hospital care, fierce summer heat, and overcharging by taxis, guides and shops.

    Score 74, grade B

  13. Tashkent

    Tashkent is one of the safer big cities in Asia for street crime, and most visitors walk it at night without worry. The weak points are winter air about six times the WHO guideline, hospitals the FCDO calls generally poor, pickpockets in Chorsu Bazaar and on the metro, and taxis without rear seat belts.

    Score 74, grade B

  14. Khiva

    Khiva is a small, quiet town, and its walled old centre is one of the safest places a visitor can walk in Central Asia, day or night. The weak points are the distance from good medical care, salty dust blown in from the dried Aral Sea, summer afternoons near 40°C and rising road deaths in Khorezm region.

    Score 73, grade B

  15. Astana

    Astana is a calm, heavily policed capital where serious crime against visitors is uncommon. The things to plan for are late-night thefts and drink spiking around bars, the FCDO's advice not to walk alone at night, a winter cold that can be dangerous, and coal smoke that pushes winter air well past the WHO guideline.

    Score 72, grade B

  16. Kuala Lumpur

    Kuala Lumpur is a reasonably safe city for visitors, with low homicide and falling police-recorded crime. The risks are street-level ones, such as bag snatchers on motorbikes, card skimming, drink spiking in nightlife areas, pavements and roads built for cars, and sudden flash floods.

    Score 70, grade B

  17. Almaty

    Almaty is safe for most visitors, and street violence aimed at tourists is uncommon. The catches are winter smog about five times the WHO guideline, drivers who kill more pedestrians than motorists, pickpockets and late-night thefts near bars, and an active earthquake zone.

    Score 69, grade C

  18. Ho Chi Minh City

    Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is a safe city for visitors in terms of serious crime. The everyday risks are a phone or bag snatched by a passing motorbike, crossing streets full of scooters, polluted air and street flooding in the rainy season.

    Score 69, grade C

  19. Bishkek

    Bishkek is a relaxed, green capital and serious violence against visitors is rare. The risks are street theft, from Osh Bazaar pickpockets to muggings after dark, fast-rising road crashes, winter smog about four times the WHO guideline, weak hospitals and a high earthquake risk.

    Score 67, grade C

  20. Hanoi

    Hanoi is safe from serious crime and most visitors feel at ease walking the Old Quarter at night. The real risks are the air, which averaged more than nine times the WHO guideline in 2024, streets full of motorbikes, snatch theft and small scams, and floods like those Typhoon Yagi brought in 2024.

    Score 67, grade C

  21. Bali

    Bali is relaxed and violent crime against visitors is uncommon, but it is not as easy as it looks. The island's roads kill about 600 people a year, theft from foreigners rose sharply in 2025, and rabies, methanol-laced drinks and seasonal floods are real hazards.

    Score 66, grade C

  22. Bangkok

    Bangkok is friendly and generally safe from serious crime, but it asks more of visitors than Tokyo or Dubai. The roads are the biggest danger, tourist scams are everywhere, and the air from January to March can be among the worst in the world.

    Score 66, grade C

  23. Colombo

    Colombo is one of the easier big cities in South Asia for a visitor. Violent crime against foreigners is rare and the air is far cleaner than in Delhi or Kathmandu, but gang shootings make the local news, buses drive hard, thieves snatch bags from mopeds, and the Kelani River floods the north of the city.

    Score 66, grade C

  24. Galle

    Galle's walled fort is quiet, compact and safe to wander, and crime against visitors is rare. The risks lie outside the ramparts. The sea has strong monsoon currents, the coast road is fast and crowded, gang shootings hit the district at times, and the 2004 tsunami struck here.

    Score 66, grade C

  25. Mumbai

    Mumbai is one of India's easier big cities for visitors, with about one murder per 100,000 residents and busy streets late into the night. The risks are crowds and pickpockets, overloaded local trains, roads hostile to pedestrians, polluted winter air and monsoon flooding from June to September.

    Score 66, grade C

  26. Chiang Mai

    Chiang Mai is calmer than Bangkok or Phuket, and crime against visitors is uncommon. The risks are the air in the burning season from February to April, when the city has topped world pollution rankings, rented motorbikes on mountain roads, and floods like the Ping River's 50-year high in October 2024.

    Score 65, grade C

  27. Yogyakarta

    Yogyakarta is one of Indonesia's calmest big cities for a visitor, and Malioboro, the kraton and the temple trips rarely bring trouble. The risks are late-night klitih attacks, protests that turned violent in 2025 and October 2026, busy roads, Parangtritis rip currents, Merapi and earthquakes.

    Score 65, grade C

  28. Jakarta

    Jakarta is a low-crime city for most visitors, and attacks on foreigners are rare. The everyday risks are the air, which averaged 41.7 µg/m³ of PM2.5 in 2024, the traffic, wet-season floods and phone snatching from motorbikes. Protests near parliament turned into riots in August 2025 and again in August 2026.

    Score 64, grade C

  29. Kandy

    Kandy is a calm hill city where violent crime against visitors is rare. The real risks are the hills around it, where Cyclone Ditwah's landslides killed more people in Kandy district than anywhere else in Sri Lanka in 2025, plus pushy touts, crowded roads and the open doors of the hill-country train.

    Score 64, grade C

  30. Siem Reap

    Siem Reap is one of the easiest places in Cambodia for a visitor, and Angkor is well policed. The risks are night roads, theft from tuk-tuks, assaults on lone women near Pub Street, heat, dengue and hospitals that send serious cases to Bangkok. The 2025 border fighting came within 80 km of Angkor.

    Score 64, grade C

  31. Manila

    Metro Manila is manageable for visitors who stay in Makati, BGC or Ortigas, use ride apps and keep valuables out of sight. Street robbery, sometimes armed, is the main crime risk, and typhoons and monsoon floods shut the city down several times a year. The US rates the Philippines Level 2.

    Score 62, grade C

  32. Pattaya

    Pattaya is safe enough for most visitors by day and on the family beaches at Jomtien. The trouble clusters around Walking Street and the bar sois at night, where fights with staff, robbery and drink spiking are reported. Roads are the biggest killer, and heavy rain floods the city's streets and canals.

    Score 62, grade C

  33. Phuket

    Phuket is safe from serious crime for most visitors, but motorbike crashes are the biggest danger, and its west-coast beaches drown swimmers every monsoon season. Jet-ski damage claims and taxi fares are the main scams; the 2004 tsunami left a working warning system behind.

    Score 62, grade C

  34. Pokhara

    Pokhara is a quiet, low-crime lake town and the gateway to the Annapurnas. Its dangers come from the winding road from Kathmandu, mountain flights from its airport, tandem paragliding, monsoon floods on the Seti and the quake risk that all of Nepal shares.

    Score 62, grade C

  35. Kathmandu

    Kathmandu is a low-crime city where the bigger risks are physical. The valley's air averaged nine times the WHO guideline in 2024, it sits on one of the world's most active fault lines, its streets belong to motorbikes, and the September 2025 protests showed how fast politics can turn violent here.

    Score 59, grade C

  36. Phnom Penh

    Phnom Penh is manageable for a careful visitor, and violence against tourists is rare. The risks are bag and phone snatching by thieves on motorbikes along the riverfront and in BKK, Cambodia's most crash-prone roads, dengue, smoky dry-season air and hospitals that send serious cases to Bangkok.

    Score 59, grade C

  37. Delhi

    Delhi is manageable for a careful visitor, and serious crime against tourists is uncommon. But it has some of the dirtiest air of any capital, the highest recorded crime against women among India's big cities, aggressive touts and roads that killed 1,658 people in 2024.

    Score 52, grade D

Which cities are on the list

The rule is the UN's definition of Asia without Western Asia: every city we cover in East, Southeast, South and Central Asia. That leaves out the Gulf, Israel and Turkey, which most travellers think of as the Middle East, and the Caucasus. Bali is an island, not a city, but we score it as one destination, so it is here too. Our Asian countries ranking uses the same rule.

How the order is built

Each city has six scored factors: violent crime 25%, theft and scams 20%, and walking at night, traffic safety, and health and environment 15% each, with natural hazards at 10%. The list sorts the scores from the highest down and changes whenever we update a city page. The details are on how we score cities.

A city's score can never be more than 35 points above its country's conflict and terrorism score. In Asia this changes no result. The closest case is Manila, because the Philippines scores low on conflict for the insurgency in Mindanao, but the cap still sits well above Manila's own score. Hong Kong and Macau take the cap from our China page.

What the top cities have in common

The cities near the top are Singapore and the big cities of East Asia, and they share three things: very little violent crime, very little theft and streets people walk at night without fear. Singapore had a Homicide rateThe number of people killed on purpose each year for every 100,000 residents. It is the most comparable crime figure between countries.More in the glossary of 0.07 per 100,000 in 2023, and Tokyo recorded 134 traffic deaths in 2025 in a metropolis of about 14 million people. What separates them is mostly nature. Japanese cities lose points to earthquake risk, and Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei to typhoons.

Why some well-known cities are lower

There is a clear gap between those cities and the rest. Central Asia leads the second group. The four Uzbek cities we cover, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Khiva, have very little street crime and calm old towns at night, but hospitals are basic, desert summers are extreme and Tashkent's winter air is smoggy. Kazakhstan's capital Astana is close behind, with winter nights below −30°C. Almaty and Bishkek sit lower for winter smog and a high earthquake risk.

Further down, the gap does not come from violent crime, which is low almost everywhere on this list, but from the roads and the air. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Bali, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are full of motorbikes, and crashes are the most likely way for a visitor to get hurt. Bag and phone snatching from passing motorbikes is the typical theft. In Sri Lanka and Nepal the towns themselves are calm, and the danger lies around them: buses on the hill roads near Kandy, the coast road and sea currents at Galle, and the mountain road, flights and paragliding at Pokhara.

Air pollution decides much of the rest. Hanoi averaged 45.4 µg/m³ of PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary in 2024, Kathmandu 45.1 and Jakarta 41.7, and Delhi twice that. Delhi is at the bottom of the list for its air, its traffic and harassment of women, not for violence against tourists. Kathmandu is near it for physical risks too: smog, motorbike traffic and one of the world's most active fault lines. Phnom Penh is also near the bottom, for other reasons: snatch theft on the riverfront, Cambodia's most crash-prone roads and hospitals that send serious cases abroad. Colombo, at 16.9 µg/m³, has far cleaner air than either. Mumbai does better, with about one murder per 100,000 residents in 2025.

What the score does not tell you

The score does not cover the law. Mainland China's exit bans and Hong Kong's national security laws matter to some visitors far more than street crime, and the pages for Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong explain them. Drug laws are far harsher than in Europe or North America: in Singapore, carrying more than set amounts counts as trafficking and can carry the death penalty, even for transit passengers.

For a trip in Southeast Asia, the most useful single step is to skip renting a scooter unless you ride one at home, and to wear a helmet on every ride-hailing motorbike.

Questions

What is the safest city in Asia?

Singapore, Tokyo and Kyoto are at the top of this list, with Hong Kong, Seoul, Osaka and Taipei close behind. The order among them can change with one update, so treat them as a group. All have very little violent crime or street theft, and they lose their few points to things like earthquakes, typhoons or heat.

Is Bangkok safe for tourists?

Bangkok is generally safe from serious crime, but the roads are the biggest danger, and about 82% of road accidents there involve motorcycles. Scams are everywhere around the Grand Palace, Khao San Road and Sukhumvit; a stranger who says the palace is closed is usually starting one. From January to March the air can be among the worst in the world.

Is Manila safe to visit?

Metro Manila is manageable if you stay in Makati, BGC or Ortigas, use Grab rather than street taxis at night and keep valuables out of sight. Street robbery, sometimes armed, is the main crime risk. Typhoons and monsoon floods shut the city down several times in a typical year.

Is Delhi safe for tourists?

Serious crime against tourists is uncommon, but Delhi asks a lot of visitors. Its PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary averaged 91.6 µg/m³ in 2024, over 18 times the WHO guideline, and it records more crime against women than any other big Indian city. Women should expect harassment; the metro has a women-only coach, and booking cabs through an app avoids most touts.

Is Tokyo safe at night?

Yes. Tokyo is one of the safest big cities in the world by day and by night, and people walk alone late without much worry. The risks after dark are in nightlife districts such as Kabukicho and Roppongi, where drink spiking and inflated bar bills catch some visitors.

Why are Dubai and Istanbul not on this list?

We use the UN's map of Asia without its Western Asia region, so the Middle East is not included. We still score Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Tel Aviv and Antalya, and Istanbul is in the European cities ranking because its historic centre is on the European side.