Data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime shows the most up-to-date available homicide rates per 100,000 people for the most populous cities of 137 countries. The Americas overtook Africa as the region with the highest murder rate in 2012 – with eight of the world’s 10 deadliest cities found there.
10: Kingston, Jamaica. (Murder rate: 50.3 per 100,000 people in 2011)
The UNODC numbers capture intentional homicide, defined as ‘unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person’. A total of 328 people were murdered in Kingston in 2011 – significantly down on previous years.
9: San Salvador. (Murder rate: 52.5 in 2012)
The Central American country is riddled by powerful street gangs. A truce between the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs helped cut the country’s murder rate to a 10-year low of five a day last year – but last month saw national rates double those of a year earlier.
8: Panama City (Murder rate: 53.1 in 2012)
Violent crime started to rise in Panama in 2007 and topped 800 murders in 2009 – but national rates have been falling since 2010. The US Overseas Security Advisory Council ranks Panama as ‘relatively safe’ for Central America.
7: Cape Town, South Africa (Murder rate: 59.9 in 2007)
Almost two-thirds of Cape Town murders took place in just 10 of the city’s 60 police precincts, according to an analysis of 2012 crime hotspots by the Institute for Security Studies. Nationally, South Africa has halved its murder rate since the mid-90s.
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