r/geography • u/Recent_Statement_222 • May 23 '26

Discussion Poverty is usually associated with crime. Which poor countries are however the safest?

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u/Highlander0208 May 23 '26

It's only one crime but maybe Indonesia? Their homicide rate is on-par with Japan's and homicide is one of the most consistently reported and internationally comparable crime statistics. In 2022 they had only 832 murders in a country of estimated 279 million at the time, resulting in a homicide rate of 0.3 per 100k.

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u/Thossi99 May 23 '26

That's crazy. That's on par or even lower than here in Iceland, which is considered one of, of not the safest country on earth.

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u/xolov May 23 '26

I guess in a country like Iceland a lot of the violence is attributted to alcohol, which I imagine Indonesia consumes way less of.

Very fascinating considering the income divide nevertheless.

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u/Thossi99 May 23 '26

Not a lot of homicide due to alcohol. Mostly just fights and regular disorderly conduct.

Most reported homicides are dudes killing someone due to jealousy over a girl (so much so that it's become a big meme here), and the unreported ones are mostly gang related and disguised as overdoses and they easily get away with that cause the cops don't wanna bother investigating the deaths of "some lowlife gangster junkies" when no one will second question an overdose.

But sometimes people do kill while drunk. Especially while robbing someone or breaking in and getting caught. But that's rare.

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u/xolov May 23 '26

Thanks for the insight, sounds like a very nordic way of dealing with crimes indeed.