Edinburgh third in list of world’s ‘safest cities’

EDINBURGH has been named as the world’s third-safest city, according to a new survey.

Edinburgh was named the third-safest city in the world. Picture: Julie Bull

Scoring as 69 per cent ‘safe’ and three per cent ‘risky’, the Scottish capital was pipped to the top post by York and Bath among the 42 world cities in the survey, while Egyptian capital Cairo was deemed the most unsafe.

York recorded a 72 per cent ‘safe’ score and just one per cent ‘risky’ while 69 per cent said Bath was ‘safe’ and just two per cent ‘risky’.

Brighton also recorded a ‘safe’ score with 62 per cent regarding it as safe - but six per cent said it was ‘risky’ - the highest risk score in the top 10.

The survey of 2,075 UK adults, conducted by Post Office Travel Insurance showed that of the eight UK and Ireland destinations in the survey, the least-safe was Belfast with only 37 per cent deeming it safe.

But although 53 per cent reckoned Manchester was safe, 20 per cent thought the north-west England city was risky - a higher figure than that for Belfast (19 per cent).

Least-safe city among the 42 was Cairo, with 56 per cent seeing the Egyptian city as risky and only 7 per cent saying it was safe. The risky figure for Bangkok was 47 per cent, with Istanbul 39 per cent and Marrakech 35 per cent.

A stolen wallet (24 per cent) was the most common occurrence for those who had had problems in cities.

As many as 26 per cent felt they had been ripped off on city visits, with this figure rising to 43 per cent among those aged 18-24.

These were the 10 “safest” destinations (excluding the percentage of people who were “don’t knows”):

DESTINATION SAFE RISKY

York 72 per cent 1 per cent

Bath 69 per cent 2 per cent

Edinburgh 69 per cent 3 per cent

Brighton 62 per cent 6 per cent

Venice 59 per cent 4 per cent

Vienna 58 per cent 2 per cent

Dublin 58 per cent 6 per cent

Florence 56 per cent 3 per cent

Stockholm 56 per cent 3 per cent

Copenhagen 54 per cent 3 per cent