TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei ranked 24th in this year’s Safe Cities Index, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit on Monday (Aug. 23).
Denmark’s Copenhagen took the top spot, followed by Toronto, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo, in that order.
The index, which ranks 60 cities across five continents, measures urban safety across five metrics: personal, health, infrastructure, digital, and environmental security — a new addition this year.
Taipei’s aggregate score was 74 out of 100, with the city’s infrastructure security (82.4) being its highest metric and digital security (63.2) the lowest. For personal security, Taipei ranked 19th with a score of 70.9, roughly 16 points behind table leader Copenhagen.
The personal security score stands in stark contrast to other measures, such as Numbeo.com's Crime Index, a website that ranks 378 cities according to each's crime index rate. By this measure, Taipei is currently ranked as the third-safest city in the world.
Unlike Numbeo's rankings, the scores of the Economist's Safe Cities Index are drawn from 76 distinct factors. The index was previously published in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
Taipei’s highest ranking was in 2015, when it placed 13th with a score of 86.5. In 2015, personal security (85.7) was the highest metric the city scored for.
Earlier this year, The Economist’s coverage caused a stir in Taiwan after the magazine ran a cover story that described it as the “most dangerous place on Earth.”
The description, based on the perception of an increasing threat of Chinese invasion, triggered heated discussion among netizens and media pundits at the time and an official response from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who declared her confidence the country can overcome the challenges of authoritarian expansion.
