Honolulu ranks among safest U.S. cities, ties for 45th globally

By Thomas Wagner
Associated Press

LONDON — A new study released yesterday ranked Honolulu as one of the safest cities in the United States, and the 45th safest in the world.

Luxembourg is the world's safest city, but Swiss cities lead the way for combining safety with high quality of life, according to the survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

The Swiss cities of Bern, Geneva and Zurich ranked just behind Luxembourg for safety, along with Finland's capital, Helsinki.

When it comes to overall quality of life, Geneva and Zurich share the lead, followed by Vancouver, British Columbia, and Vienna, Austria, tied for third, and the German cities of Frankfurt, Munich and Duesseldorf tied for fifth.

The safety survey evaluated 215 locations for crime levels and internal stability.

In the United States, the five safest cities tied for 45th place — Honolulu; Houston; Lexington, Ky.; San Francisco; and Winston-Salem, N.C.

New York was 58th, while Atlanta had the lowest U.S. ranking at 90th.

"The top-ranking cities for personal safety and security are in politically stable countries with good international relations and sustainable economic growth," said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer. "Most of the low-scoring cities are in countries with civil unrest, little law enforcement and high levels of crime."

The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, was ranked the least safe city, followed by Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Bangui, Central African Republic; the Nigerian cities of Port Harcourt and Lagos; and Bogota, Colombia.

For its overall quality-of-life rankings, Mercer evaluated 39 criteria such as crime, health, education and transport.

Other cities at the top in that category are Auckland, New Zealand; Bern; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Sydney, Australia.

Honolulu and San Francisco ranked highest in the United States at a joint 25th, while New York tied with London for 39th place.