Spain among the safest countries in the world, ahead of the USA and Canada
Nowadays Spain is one of the safest countries in the world. The most recent data show significant improvements in terms of a reduction in the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants, and a notable reduction in street crime. These data place the country among the safest in the world.
Homicide rates in Spain compared to others in the world
Spain, which has a homicide rate of 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, ranks seventh globally among the countries with the lowest incidence of this type of crime. This figure is much lower than the world average of 5.3 reflected in various studies.
The figure shows a substantial improvement of the country with respect to its statistics of 30 years ago, and ranks it higher than other European countries such as Germany (0.8); Portugal (1.0); or France (1.6); only being surpassed in the continent by Ireland, Holland, Austria and Liechtenstein in that order. In this sense, Spain is statistically better placed than nations such as the United States (4.9) and Canada (1.7).
As for controversial gender-based violence, Spain is one of the safest countries in the world in this regard as well, with less than 50 episodes of violence against women per year, a figure that has substantially changed in the last 10 years. In fact, it is one of the nations in the European Union with the lowest rate of gender-based violence with just 2.6 episodes per 100,000 inhabitants.
Spanish streets and homes increasingly safe
The occurrence of crimes against property is a concern for one in ten households. The data shows a substantial improvement on account of the 20% of Spaniards who showed this type of concern when asked about it, according to official data provided by the INE.
When reviewed carefully, these statistics show that in most parts of the country people are very confident when it comes to the perception of security in homes, with a fairly low percentage of citizens who place the issue as part of their daily concerns.
Another encouraging fact has to do with how Spaniards feel when they take to the streets. Statistics show that Spaniards today feel 40% more confident than ten years ago. Such results are corroborated with the data officially provided by the authorities of the Ministry of the Interior, which show that while in 2008 the country reported an average of 135 crimes per day, by 2016 this figure fell to 80 crimes, a remarkable reduction of more than 30%.
Other aspects still need to be improved
Although improvements in personal safety standards are quite noticeable, official bodies recognize that there are aspects with room for improvement.
In this sense, citizen awareness must play a key role in reducing unpleasant episodes related to hate crimes. Although the Ministry of the Interior reported a 4.5% reduction in this regard between 2015 and 2016, the figures remain negative with more than 600 victims who could increase in 2018. However, those figures are still far from the thousands of victims that there were in 2017 in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, France or Northern Ireland.
It is also necessary to reduce the suicide rate, which has doubled since the 1980s. Men are the most affected in this respect, with more than 120 suicides per year.