Toronto ranked 6th safest major city in the world: report

City of Toronto/Shutterstock

Those interested in visiting a safe, multi-cultural city might want to consider heading to Toronto, as a new report suggests it’s now the sixth safest city in the world.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2019 Safe Cities Index (SCI) ranked 60 major cities on five continents in terms of their digital security, health security, infrastructure, and personal safety.

Topping the list is the most populated metropolis on Earth, Tokyo, which earned a score of 92.0 out of a possible 100.

See also:

Asia-Pacific cities make up six of the top 10, with Singapore following in second place with an overall score of 91.5 and another Japanese metropolis, Osaka, is third, with 90.9.

However, numbers alone don’t give the full story, and according to the report, while Asia-Pacific is home to some of the world’s safest places, it also contains some of the index’s lowest-scoring cities.

While Canada’s most populous city still made it into the top ten, it did drop two spots from the previous ranking in 2017 to sixth place with an overall score of 87.8.

Of the four main categories, Toronto came ninth for digital security (90.6), 17th for health security (77.4), tied 12th with New York for infrastructure security (92.5), and 8th for personal security (90.8).

However, everyone might not agree with this ranking, following a recent wave of gun violence prompted the province to provide the city with a $3 million investment for new closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

Toronto was also the only Canadian city to make it onto the list.

As for our neighbours to the south, the only US city to hit the top 10 was capital Washington, DC in the seventh place, with Chicago just missing the cut, coming in at number 11.

The world’s safest cities for 2019, according to SCI:

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Singapore
3. Osaka, Japan
4. Amsterdam, the Netherlands
5. Sydney, Australia
6. Toronto, Canada
7. Washington DC, US
= 8. Copenhagen, Denmark
= 8. Seoul, South Korea
10. Melbourne, Australia

You can read the full report here.