Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen has been named the world’s safest city for 2021.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index ranks 60 international destinations based on health security, digital security, personal security, and infrastructure. Environmental security was added as a new category this year.
Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 played a large part in this year’s health security assessment.
Copenhagen jumped eight spots from 2019, scoring 82.4 points out of a possible 100. The country’s low crime rate contributed to the jump, along with the introduction of the environmental security category. The city did exceptionally well in this area.
“Copenhagen is also characterized by great social cohesion and a relatively narrow wealth gap. It is a mixed city where both the cleaning assistant and the CEO meet each other at the local supermarket and have their kids in the same school,” lord mayor of Copenhagen Lars Weiss said in the report. “This is one of the very cornerstones of Danish culture, and it contributes greatly to the high levels of trust and safety that we benefit from.”
Toronto placed second on the list, with Singapore rounding out the top three safest cities. New York was the United States’ highest scoring city, coming in at number 11. Sharing the 11th spot with NYC is Spain’s Barcelona. Washington DC placed 14th on the list, and San Francisco tied with London at 15.
Six cities have consistently made it into the top 10 every year since the report was created in 2015. They are Amsterdam, Melbourne, Tokyo, Toronto, Singapore, and Sydney. Copenhagen has regularly made the list since 2019.
