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The Most Homicidal Countries

In South Africa, we have a lot of things to be proud about. On the sporting front, our rugby team is top of the IRB World Rankings and the Proteas are ranked the third best cricketing team in the world. I have conveniently left out the national soccer side but I’m sure they hold a record for something – perhaps having the most coaches hired/fired.

We have some of the most “entertaining” politicians (see Julius Malema), and whilst no list will ever be able to graph it, our love for braai and beer is unparalleled. We also have the dubious distinction of topping a list that most countries would try to avoid being a part of.

In a local-is-not-so-lekker situation which most of us are aware of (but don’t tend to bring up in normal conversation), South Africa leads the world in homicide rates. The Guardian reports that, according to United Nations data from 2004, South Africa has 69 murders per 100,000 people, with Colombia in second place with 61.1 and El Salvador taking third with 57.5. That UN data was visualized by GOOD magazine’s “Transparency” department into an infographic that I am hard-pressed to find visually appealing.

These kind of traits obviously shape peoples’ perceptions of countries, but for the most of it, South Africans really are a nice bunch of people. If you ever visit Cape Town, drop us a line and we’ll happily let you buy us beer ;-)

[Thanks to PS3ZA member RA1THE for the tip]

8 replies on “The Most Homicidal Countries”

Quite.

If you have a look at the data, the UN comes up with 60 per 100,000 but the crime stats released by the SAPS had it at 39.5 per 100,000. That’s a noticeable difference, I wonder what the reason is?

this is the beauty of south africa… its the only country in the world that has a horrific crime and employment stats, plus many other faults, yet we still are enthusiastic about our country? confusing but encouraging… i think.

on a side note, 60 murders per 100k people, my maths (population 45m/100k*60) states that is roughly 27 000 murders a year!! could some one please confirm that?
it can’t be right, surely…?

I totally agree with your sentiments.

About the maths, if you have a look at just the murder statistics in SA (see the official numbers in this SAPS PDF), it’s between 18k-19k per annum.

The UN says it’s high, the SAPS says the rate is going down, who do you believe?

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Yikes even the SAPS stats are scary – 18 000 people a year is a lot. I’m just glad to still be alive.

Glad to be alive? Lol Lucy, that’s a tad sensationalist don’t you think? ;-)

Seriously though, don’t spend too much SAPS crime stats section, some of the numbers are staggering. I was about to say that the majority of the rates seem to be going down, but it seems carjacking, burglary (residential), commercial crime, stock theft, drug-related crime, DUI, and total sexual offenses are on the way up.

South Africa’s nowhere near 69 per 100,000, they’ve included ‘culpaple homicide’ whose definition differs depending on the country. In South Africa these are typically traffic accidents so the list is meaningless.

Mystery solved and Saffas can breath a sigh of relief that once again they’re not murder capital of the world after all.