Madrid security rating soars as Spain boasts two of Europe’s safest cities

Madrid and Barcelona offer excellent levels of personal, infrastructural and digital safety, the study found.

Despite the recent terrorist attack on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas, Spain’s two largest cities have ranked among some of the safest in Europe in the latest Safe Cities Index 2017, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit…

The ranking looks at 60 major global cities and rates them on everything from crime rates and road safety to healthcare quality, digital security and infrastructure standards.

Topping the list for the second time is Japanese capital Tokyo, followed by Singapore and Osaka, which is also in Japan.

There were three European cities in the top ten – Amsterdam in sixth, Stockholm in eighth and Zurich in tenth – with Madrid ranking behind Frankfurt in 12^th place, and Barcelona in 13^th place. London ranked below Chicago in 20^th place, while Paris was 24^th and Rome 27^th.

Madrid and Barcelona were actually table-toppers in the security infrastructure sector, ranking ahead of all others for their quality of buildings, bridges, roads and emergency services.

Most notable, however, was the fact that Madrid gained 13 points in the Index since the last ranking in 2015, which was more than any other city and bucked a general downward trend. Madrid’s score of 83.88 and Barcelona’s score of 83.61 was enough to push the two Spanish cities ahead of Seoul, San Francisco and Wellington – cities that ranked higher than Barcelona and Madrid last time round.

Of course, Spain’s smaller cities are safer still than Madrid and Barcelona, but given the size, status and popularity of these cities, this is nevertheless an impressive performance, particularly when one considers just how much tourism and wealth pours into both cities all year round.

Bringing up the rear of the safe cities list was Karachi in Pakistan with a score of just 38.77.