Tulips

For those of you feeling unsafe in Europe, do you know which city has the most murders?

It's Brussels, with 0.1 murder per 1000 inhabitants. In London, it's only 0.03 per 1000. On the other hand, Brussels does have 6.3 doctors per 1000 inhabitants, compared to 0.6 per 1000 in London.

Dublin has most heart attacks, and also the most rain
Rome is the worst city for safety on the roads

And did you know that London has more sunshine per day than Paris? 4.7 hours on average per day, compared to 4.4 in Paris.

Quite surprising statistics I thought (well, apart from Roman road safety, that was to be expected).

For more of this, www.urbanaudit.org

LoveItaly

Tulips, LOL, I was reading your interesting post but when I got to Rome and and safety on the road I thought "well, duh, yes?" and than your last comment had me really laughing.

Patrick

Well, personally I wouldn't have been surprised if either Naples or Palermo had more traffic accidents than Rome. I could hardly hear myself think in Palermo for the sounds of cars bouncing off each other! And we sat in Naples along the sidewalk eating one evening playing a game of trying to find a passing car that didn't have some body damage.

ira

In 2003, the murder rate for Washington, DC was 2.6.

Will I be safe visiting Brussels?

Tulips

Ira, I think you would be ok in Brussels, and if you did have a problem, there's always those 6.3 doctors per 1000.

By the way, the number of death or severely injured in traffic in Rome was 8.4 per 1000.

BTilke

Our own crime history of five years in Brussels:
1 successful pickpocketing
2 unsuccessful attempts at pickpocketing (that we knew about)
1 mugging (thrown to the ground and purse snatched by three young guys)
1 attempted shooting at point blank range (fortunately, the shooter was too drunk to realize the gun wasn't loaded, after which my husband pounded him; I took the gun and gave it to the police when they arrived)
3 car break ins (windows broken)
1 incident of slight damage to car by rampaging mob during pro Palestinian march (we got off easy--more than 100 cars were trashed and dozens of buildings vandalized along the march route)
1 attempt to break into the car to grab our laptop while we were waiting at a stop light. Doors were locked, fortunately, and the perps kicked the car a couple of times before light turned green and we drove away

Spread over five years, that's not too bad.

WillTravel

BTilke, that sounds pretty bad to me. I assume this refers to events you and your spouse have suffered. I don't think our family of four (me, husband, two children) has had any crime events in the past five years. This despite seeing drug addicts in action practically every day here in Vancouver. Hope I don't jinx myself.

My mother was mugged a few years ago, and a few years before that my sister had her purse snatched by someone on a bike, but otherwise none in recent memory.

degas

BTilke, that sounds real bad over a 30 year period! Beats me why people on a "peace" march would trash cars and buildings.

elaine

It's so nice living in sunny, doctor-filled, safe, New York. (Safe as long as we're not attacked again, that is.)

I'd love to see statistical comparisons between the European cities and American ones. It would help in responding to the worriers.
Any facts about drinking water, for example?

111op

Supposedly the crime rate in NYC has fallen to historic lows. The Times ran an interesting article in the Sunday paper that new people who've moved in have forgotten how dangerous the city is. Much of Manhattan is so much safer (Times Square/Hells Kitchen, Alphabet City, etc. all cleaned up and gentrified).

Brussels actually sounds pretty bad, I've to say. Maybe you're just unlucky, BT?

nytraveler

Agreed - New York sounds like a walk in the park compared to Brussels - 16 years of not a single criminal incident of any kind (and the break in before that turned out to be a rogue super). Of course there are drug dealers down on the corner at 3AM - but they really don;t want trouble with anyone - and I have always found them to be perfectly polite.

isabel

Well I don't know about drinking water but I was just preparing some statistics for a lecture on health promotion - here's a sampling:

There are 26 other countries (including most of western Europe) with greater life expectancy than the US.

There are 16 other countries (mostly western Europe) with better (lower) infant mortality rates than the US.

The US spends more than twice as much money (per capita)on health care than the 30 other industrialized nations, including those with longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality.

An average of 9,400 Americans are killed by guns each year compared to 100 in Canada, 30 in Britain, 15 in Japan and 2 in New Zealand.

Of all the firearm deaths of kids under the age of 15 in the 26 industrialized nations, 86% were in the US.

More kids are killed each year by guns in Washington state (population 5.5 million) than in Canadda and Great Britain combined (population 90 million).

ira

Goodness, BT.

That sounds like NYC or DC.

flygirl

BTilke - I've lived in the DC area (not in DC) for 15 years and have none of that happen to me! I don't think that's a good average over 5 years. especially not the muggings/guns drawn bit.

sandi_travelnut

So are you saying those things happened to you. BTilke? I've had my car broken into once, never been mugged or had anyone point a gun at me etc.. in over 40 years. And I live in Texas where lots of folks have guns (and most don't mind using them)

hansikday

This was written in 2002 in the Weekly Standard.

London saw more serious assaults, armed robberies, and car thefts than New York; 2002 could see London's murder rate exceed the Big Apple's.

The same can be seen throughout Europe--indeed, in much of the developed world. Crime has recently hit record highs in Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Toronto, and a host of other major cities.

In a 2001 study, the British Home Office (the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Justice) found violent and property crime increased in the late 1990s in every wealthy country except the United States.

American property crime rates have been lower than those in Britain, Canada, and France since the early 1990s, and violent crime rates throughout the E.U., Australia, and Canada have recently begun to equal and even surpass those in the United States. Even Sweden, once the epitome of cosmopolitan socialist prosperity, now has a crime victimization rate 20 percent higher than the United States.

Americans, on the other hand, have become much safer. Preliminary 2001 crime statistics from the FBI show America's tenth consecutive year of declines in crime.

While our homicide rate is still substantially higher than most in Europe, it has sunk to levels unseen here since the early 1960s. And overall crime rates in this country are now 40 percent below the all-time highs of the early 1970s. In 1973, nearly 60 percent of American households fell victim to property crimes. In 2000 (the most recent data available), only about 20 percent did.

Among the economically powerful democracies in the Group of Seven, only the Japanese now have a lower victimization rate than the United States.

BTilke

Yes, those things all happened to us! I don't think we were particularly unlucky--most of our fellow expat friends in Brussels have similar stories to tell (except the gun incident--we are the only ones in our "social circle" to have a gun pulled on us). FWIW, we have also lived in Philadelphia and New York (and various other less urban places) and did not have similar encounters.
In Brussels, the highest number of car break ins seem to happen to Brit expats who have cars with right-hand drive. I don't know whether the break ins are some kind of anti UK thing or whether the criminals are assuming that the Brits have valuables tucked away in the car.

stardust

Wow... had no idea Brussels was so unsafe... and I've lived in Belgium all my life... about the right-hand drive... perhaps it has something to do with a left-side passenger seat (where for example lots of women have their purses) is for some reason easier to reach for a burglar than a right-side one? From all the friends I know that live in Brussels, only one got her purse stolen by guys opening the passenger door at a traffic light, and that's it. I think you had really bad luck.

crefloors

Can anyone tell me the murder rate in Molvania? I have my plane tickets and wonder how safe I will be.

degas

Wow - the USA is not as bad as I thought. Crime has a way of sneaking up on everybody sooner or later.

What is causing the increase in Europe?
High unemployment? Increase in immigrants? Lax sentencing? Poor work by the police? Combination of all of the above?