You might also like:
WHEN planning a vacation, how many of you look on your government’s website for travel advisories?
Either way, it’s good to know if your next destination is safe and what precautions you should take before going.
Thanks to a study conducted by US researchers Gallup, you needn’t trawl through pages of travel advisories anymore as it has listed the world’s safest nations.
Gallup’s 2018 Global Law and Order report ranked 142 countries in order of their safeness. This year, Singapore took the supreme safety crown with an overall score of 97.
Singapore is known as a place of extreme cleanliness and has a low crime rate, with harsh penalties for anyone violating laws.
Singapore is one of the cleanest nations on earth. Source: Shutterstock
The report sourced answers from over 148,000 people aged 15 or older and on the whole, produced positive results as 69 percent of those surveyed said they have confidence in their local police.
A further 68 percent said they feel safe walking home alone at night where they live.
“We wanted to know whether or not people had fear in their society, and the way that we decided we would gauge that would be through asking people,” Gallup global managing partner Jon Clifton told CNN Travel.
Following Singapore in joint second place with a score of 93 are Norway, Iceland, and Finland, three Nordic countries which often top the charts as safe, clean, and happy places to live.
Participants in the survey were asked a set of questions on topics of their faith in the local police, whether they’ve experienced any recent assaults or muggings, and if they’d walk home alone at night.
Uzbekistan and Hong Kong skipped into third place with a score of 91.
Uzbekistan borders Afganistan which is the second unsafest country in the world, according to the report.
Registan public square in Uzbekistan is a major tourist attraction. Source: Shutterstock
Uzbekistan was ruled by an authoritarian government who used systems of fear and repression for decades.
Uzbekistan’s former Prime Minister Islam Karimov “ruled through fear to erect a system synonymous with the worst human rights abuses: torture, disappearances, forced labor, and the systematic crushing of dissent,” Human Rights Watch Central Asia researcher Steve Swerdlow said in a statement.
However, under the rule of Karimov’s successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has mended relations with neighboring countries, promoted economic liberalism and developed its tourism infrastructure.
“Uzbekistan is one of the safest countries” Uzbek-born Kuala Lumpur-based model Kamila tells Travel Wire Asia.
“We are in the heart of Central Asia and full of culture, different faces, and historical cities. It is 100 times safer than Malaysia” she added.
Part of its tourism push has been to set up visa-free travel for citizens from Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and Australia, among others.
Switzerland and Canda gained a respectable score of 90, putting them joint fourth.
Indonesia takes the fifth spot with a score of 89, despite recent terrorist activity in Surabaya, East Java and Riau, Eastern Sumatra.
Asian nations account for four of the world’s top 10 safest countries, making it a fantastic place to go on vacation.
Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia all scored above 70 for their faith in local police meaning in the unlikely event of theft or assault in the four Asian nations in the top 10, travelers can rely on police to get the issue resolved.
The post Singapore recognized as world’s safest country appeared first on Travel Wire Asia.
Source: travelwireasia.com