What are the safest places to visit in 2024? A new report from International SOS—a medical and travel security risk services company—offers invaluable insights for travelers.
International SOS recently released its annual Risk Map 2024, which predicts the safest countries to travel to, the riskiest ones and the biggest issues that travelers will face in the year ahead. In an age where travel uncertainties abound, from global security to geopolitical tensions, knowing the safest destinations to visit is more crucial than ever.
International SOS’s Risk Map looks at several areas of risk, including security risks, medical risks and mental health risks. This year, International SOS also added climate-related risks, due to increasing global temperatures. Countries are broken down into five levels of risk, ranging from insignificant to extreme, depending on the category.
So what are the safest places to travel to in 2024? International SOS’s securityratings are based on a variety of factors, including political violence, social unrest, as well as violent and petty crime. Other factors include transportation infrastructure, industrial relations, the effectiveness of security and emergency services and susceptibility to natural disasters.
The Risk Map reveals that Scandinavian countries—renowned for their stability and effective governance—continue to be some of the safest travel destinations. According to International SOS, Iceland tops the list as the world’s safest place to visit. The country takes the top spot for a number of reasons, including low rates of violent crime, a lack of political violence and low levels of violence against foreigners.
Coming in second on the list is Luxembourg, which has minimal security threats to travelers. Norway, Switzerland and Denmark round out the list of the five safest countries. The safety of these top countries is attributed to their stable political climates, robust law enforcement and low rates of crime and violence.
Other countries with insignificant levels of security risk include Slovenia, Finland and Greenland.
For travel security, the U.S. is listed as low risk—but not the lowest. It’s the second out of five categories.
In some regions, the risk rating has decreased. Most notably, International SOS’s risk ratings for El Salvador and parts of Nepal have been lowered following sustained downward trends across a number of factors.
The stability of the safest countries starkly contrasts with the situation in the highest risk countries, which are plagued by political unrest and minimal government control. According to International SOS, the riskiest country in the world is South Sudan, followed by Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Somalia.
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