World ranking: the 50 safest countries to travel to in 2026

2026 Global ranking: the safest countries to travel to

Iceland, Switzerland and Norway are the three safest countries to travel to in 2026, according to HelloSafe’s new global index based on five dimensions: public safety & crime, political stability, health security, cybersecurity and environmental risk.

This 2026 edition reflects a broader definition of “travel safety”. Beyond crime prevention, it also captures climate-related exposure, the strength of healthcare systems, and cyber risk — all increasingly critical factors for travellers.

Notable changes between 2025 and 2026

The 2026 ranking expands its scope: it integrates modern travel risks (cyber and climate) and strengthens transparency by relying exclusively on public data. The goal is to provide a more realistic benchmark for travellers — and a more actionable framework for the media.

• 🌐 Shift to a 100% public-data model (no proprietary datasets)
• 🔒 Stronger cybersecurity pillar using the latest ITU Global Cybersecurity Index data
• 🌱 Addition of climate resilience metrics via ND-GAIN
• 🏛 Direct integration of World Bank WGI indicators (governance, rule of law)
• ⚖️ Environmental weighting increased to 10% to better reflect climate risk
• 📈 Significant reshuffling for some countries (e.g. 🇫🇷 France) driven by cyber + health

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Global ranking: Top 50 safest countries

Quick read: the 2026 Top 50 is dominated by countries combining low crime, strong institutions, high-performing healthcare and effective risk management. Northern Europe remains the most consistently high-performing region, while Asia confirms its leadership in urban safety (Singapore, Japan).

📌 For travellers: even in the safest destinations, disruptions can be costly (accidents, hospitalisation, trip cancellation). HelloSafe’s comparison tool helps identify the most relevant travel insurance cover by destination — quickly and without complexity.

Rankings by continent (2026)

🇪🇺 Europe — the core of the Top 50

Europe remains the world’s most consistently “safe” region overall, combining institutional stability, strong healthcare systems and high-quality infrastructure. Nordic countries lead — confirming a long-term pattern driven by governance, safety and resilience.

🌏 Asia — Singapore and Japan lead outside Europe

Media angle: Asia places two destinations in the global Top 10 thanks to strong urban safety, high-performing healthcare and stable governance. However, the region still shows significant geopolitical disparities across sub-regions.

🔎 Reader service: in destinations where private healthcare is costly (Singapore, Japan, South Korea), HelloSafe allows travellers to filter policies by high medical limits and hospitalisation cover.

HelloSafe enables travellers to compare travel insurance plans including hospitalisation, repatriation and 24/7 assistance — particularly useful for multi-country trips.

🌎 The Americas — Canada, Chile, Uruguay: the most stable destinations

Canada remains a benchmark, while South America features two destinations widely seen as stable and travel-friendly: Chile and Uruguay. Across the region, environmental risk is becoming a key driver (wildfires, storms, flooding).

🌍 Africa — Morocco and Tunisia lead tourism-focused destinations

Africa remains under-represented in the Top 50, mainly due to structural risks (health infrastructure, road safety, political instability). However, North Africa still features relatively safe and highly touristic destinations.

🌏 Oceania — very safe, but increasingly climate-exposed

Oceania performs extremely well on public safety, but faces a growing disadvantage on the environmental pillar (wildfires, storms, cyclones, earthquakes), which increasingly impacts the final score.

Methodology (2026)

1. Objective

Measure a country’s overall safety for residents and travellers using five weighted dimensions:

• Public safety & crime (35%)
• Political & social stability (25%)
• Health security (15%)
• Cybersecurity (15%)
• Environmental risk & climate resilience (10%)

2. Official sources used

• UNODC / Our World in Data: homicide and crime indicators
• WHO: healthy life expectancy, road mortality
• World Bank (WGI): governance, rule of law, corruption control
• ITU GCI: cybersecurity
• ND-GAIN: climate vulnerability/resilience
• Transparency International: corruption perception
• Numbeo / WJP: urban safety indicators
• ACLED / EIU: social tensions and instability

3. Data processing

• Min-max normalisation on a 0–100 scale
• Inversion of negative indicators (crime, pollution, etc.)
• Winsorisation of outliers
• Regional-median imputation when data is missing

4. Aggregation and final score

Each indicator is weighted within its pillar. The overall score is computed as:

Safety Index = Σ (Wk × Dk) for k = 1 to 5

Where Wk is the pillar weight, and Dk is the country’s normalised score for that pillar.

5. Robustness

Sensitivity tests were conducted. 2026 scores show strong correlation with major global benchmarks such as the Global Peace Index (IEP), Human Development Index (UNDP) and the Global Risks Report (WEF).

6. Limitations

This index measures relative safety across countries with comparable data coverage. It does not capture all within-country disparities (border areas, specific cities) or sudden events (local conflicts, acute crises). It does not replace official travel advisories.