Nearly half of the world’s 50 deadliest cities are in Brazil, according to a new league table of global murder rates. The top 50 includes 21 cities in Brazil, as well as four in the United States. The survey is based on the number of murders per 100,000 residents during 2015 in cities with populations of 300,000 or more.
Practically all of the 50 deadliest cities were in the Americas, with only South Africa’s four biggest cities breaking up the pattern. Cape Town was ranked number nine. The US cities to make the table are (in order): St Louis, Baltimore, Detroit and New Orleans. St Louis, which is in Missouri, suffered 59.23 murders per 100,000 people in 2015 and was ranked 15th deadliest city in the world.
There were four Venezuelan cities in the top 11, a figure the Mexico-based Council for Public Security and Justice, which compiles the annual table, blamed on the country’s increasingly turbulent political and economic situation.
Baltimore – where, the Telegraph recalls, there were riots last year after a black man, Freddie Gray, died in police custody – was the world’s 19th most violent city. Here is the complete list of most dangerous cities.
The top 20 is:
1. Caracas, Venezuela
2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras
3. San Salvador, El Salvador
4. Acapulco, Mexico
5. Maturin, Venezuela
6. Distrito Central, Honduras
7. Valencia, Venezuela
8. Palmira, Colombia
9. Cape Town, South Africa
10. Cali, Colombia
11. Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela
12. Fortaleza, Brazil
13. Natal, Brazil
14. Salvador, Brazil
15. St Louis, USA
16. Joao Pessoa, Brazil
17. Culiacan, Mexico
18. Maceio, Brazil
19. Baltimore, USA
20. Barquisimeto, Venezuela
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