Which is the safest country in Asia? Three published measures compared

Peace, homicide and street-level confidence: three different yardsticks

The Global Peace Index ranks 163 independent states and territories using 23 indicators in three domains: societal safety and security, ongoing conflict, and militarisation. Internal peace carries 60 per cent of the weight and external peace 40 per cent, according to Wikipedia's summary of the 2026 edition. It measures the absence of violence rather than the quality of daily life, and Wikipedia notes that eight of its indicators are qualitative. It also records criticism that the index omits positive peace and structural violence and lacks transparency.

Homicide rates are narrower but easier to compare. The Wikipedia table that draws on UNODC data gives intentional homicides per 100,000 people per year, and it warns that definitions differ between countries, that years in the table run from 2011 to 2024, and that homicide may be under-reported for political reasons.

Gallup's Law and Order Index is different again. It asks residents whether they feel safe walking alone at night, whether they trust the local police, and whether they have had property stolen or been assaulted in the past year. It reflects experience and perception rather than recorded crime.

Where Asian countries sit in the 2026 Global Peace Index

Two Asian countries are in the overall top ten of the 2026 edition as listed on Wikipedia: Singapore in eighth place with a score of 1.435 and Japan in tenth with 1.489. Iceland, New Zealand and Switzerland head the world list. A lower score is more peaceful.

Behind them come Malaysia at 12th, Bhutan at 16th, Qatar at 31st, Timor-Leste at 32nd, Mongolia at 34th, Vietnam at 41st, Taiwan at 42nd and Kazakhstan at 44th. Further down, South Korea is 57th, Indonesia 69th, China 118th, India 127th and Pakistan 152nd. Because the index also counts conflict and militarisation, a country can rank lower for reasons unrelated to street crime. Equally, most indicators use 2025 or earlier data, so the index lags events.

Vision of Humanity, the index's own site, reports that global peace was at its lowest level since the index began and that 99 countries deteriorated in the past year. It lists Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria and Switzerland as its 2025 top five.

How low are homicide rates in Singapore, Japan and their neighbours?

In the UNODC-based table on Wikipedia, Singapore records 0.171 intentional homicides per 100,000 people for 2024 and Japan 0.229 for the same year, the two lowest of the Asian places we checked. Hong Kong is at 0.376 for 2023, Indonesia 0.415, South Korea 0.489 and Malaysia 0.686 for 2024. At the higher end of our short list, India is 2.716 for 2023 and the Philippines 4.312 for 2024.

Some rows are old. Vietnam's figure is from 2011, Thailand's from 2011 and Brunei's from 2013, so they should not be compared directly with a 2024 figure. The same caution applies to China, whose entry is from 2020. Wikipedia's article on crime in Japan separately cites a National Police Agency figure of 0.78 per 100,000 for 2024, but notes it relies on a UNODC report from 2014 and says the article has almost no information on the past ten years, so we do not use it as a headline.

Taken together, the table supports a narrow statement: on recorded homicide, Singapore and Japan are the lowest in this set. It does not tell you about theft, scams or harassment.

Singapore: the top score and what its recorded crime looks like

Gallup says Singapore has the highest score in Asia-Pacific on its Law and Order Index, at 95 out of 100. The index is built from the share of positive answers to four questions and covers more than 140 countries and territories; the latest Global Safety Report uses 2024 data from 144.

Singapore Police Force reports show physical crime cases rose by 4.4 per cent in 2025, from 19,969 to 20,857. Within that, outrage of modesty rose about 7 per cent from 1,427 to 1,531, while shop theft fell 3.0 per cent to 4,109. Wikipedia's article on crime in Singapore adds that since 2022 the majority of crime reports have been attributed to scams.

Singapore also has strict laws. Wikipedia says serious drug trafficking can carry the death penalty, and Wikivoyage's customs notes list items that cannot be imported. Visitors should read the official rules in advance rather than rely on general reputation. For where to base yourself, see Singapore and Singapore neighbourhoods for longer stays.

Japan and South Korea: low violent crime, but different risks

Japan's recorded crime has fallen over a long period. Wikipedia says recorded crimes fell from 2,853,739 in 2002 to 915,042 in 2017, less than a third of the 2002 total. Alongside crime, Japan carries natural-hazard risk that Singapore does not. Wikivoyage notes that typhoons often hit the south in early autumn, and recalls the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011.

South Korea is 57th in the Global Peace Index and has a homicide rate of 0.489 in the 2024 table, so it sits in a lower tier on the peace measure but a similar one on homicide. If you are comparing cities, Tokyo, Kyoto and Seoul each have their own guides, and where to stay in Tokyo for a month covers neighbourhood choice.

Statistics about a nation say little about a particular district at night. Use a country ranking to narrow the list, then read recent local advice and the building's own security arrangements before you commit.

Malaysia and Southeast Asia: ranked well, with pickpocketing the common complaint

Malaysia ranks 12th in the Global Peace Index, above Vietnam (41st) and Indonesia (69th). Wikipedia gives its homicide rate as 0.7 per 100,000 in 2024 and describes pickpocketing and burglary as the main threats to tourists, reports a high rate of credit card fraud, and mentions scams in Kuala Lumpur involving card games and gold jewellery. It says violent crime against foreign tourists is less frequent, and that strict anti-drug laws apply, with a maximum penalty of death for trafficking.

Bhutan sits 16th in the peace index. That ranking is not a travel assessment, and the index was not designed to be one.

For a base in the region, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok both have large apartment-hotel markets, and aparthotels in Asia for long stays explains the format. A kitchen and secure entry are features to check on the listing; they are not claims we can make for any particular property.

How to use a national safety ranking without over-reading it

All three measures are annual or retrospective. They cannot say that any country is safe at the moment you travel, because conditions change and some indicators rely on estimates. Scores of the kind used here can fall in a single year, as the Global Peace Index showed when 99 countries deteriorated.

Use the rankings as a first filter, and then do three things: read your own government's current travel advice, check local emergency numbers and local laws, and look at the specific neighbourhood you plan to stay in. For solo and women travellers, our travel guides safest countries for solo travellers and safest countries for women travelling alone use their own sources. If budget drives your choice, cheapest Asian country to live in looks at that question instead.

• Peace Index: rank in the world, includes conflict and militarisation.
• Homicide rate: narrow, easy to compare, but years and definitions vary.
• Law and Order Index: how safe residents say they feel, rather than recorded crime.
• Natural hazards, scams and local laws sit outside all three.