The Safest City "Davao City"

The city of Davao ranked fourth as the world's safest place, according to website Numbeo.com.

Out of 349 entries, Davao City is the only metropolis in the Philippines that made it to the top 10. It has a crime index of 13.27 and safety index of 86.73.

Makati landed at 20th place with a crime index of 18.75 and safety index of 81.25.

The only other cities listed from the Philippines are: Manila with a crime index of 64.54 and safety index of 35.46, and Cebu with a crime index of 46.88 and safety index of 53.12.

According to the website, safety index is, on the other way, quite opposite of crime index. If the city has a high safety index, it is considered very safe.

It said that it is 93.75 percent safe to walk alone during daylight in Davao, while 76.69 percent safe to walk alone during night.

"These data are based on perceptions of visitors of this website in the past two years. If value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if value is 100, it means it is perceived as very high," the website said.

With regard the crime index of 18.75, the website explained, the issue with the highest rate is the problem on corruption and bribery with 31.67, followed by “worries things from car stolen” with 29.69, then “worries home broken and things stolen” with 26.56.

The issue with the least crime rate is “worries being subject to a physical attack because of your skin color, ethnic origin or religion” with 6.67.

Treat with caution

The source Numbeo claims to be the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.

It provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

But it gathers data through user input, thus although it is popularly consulted as source for cost of living, its data have to be addressed with caution.

User input can skew data and will not reflect the whole picture, especially from places where there is not much available data. It cannot also be ascertained where and how the numbers can be verified.

The crime and safety indexes were published online at http://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_current.jsp around 11 p.m. of August 8.

The website also said that Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates placed first among the safest place with a safety index rate of 90.47, then Lugano, Switzerland (90.16), and third is Marbella, Spain (88.78).

Fifth is Taipei, Taiwan (86.26); next is Munich, Germany (86.06); Quebec City, Canada (85.55) ranked seventh; then Hong Kong, Hong Kong (85.51) as eighth; Seoul, South Korea (84.28) on ninth place; and Bern, Switzerland (84.24) as tenth.