Where is the world's most dangerous area?

We hear daily about car bombs and suicide bombers killing dozens of people at a time in Iraq. But is that the most dangerous place to be in the world right now? If not, in which region or country would your personal safety be at a higher risk of death or injury (excepting natural dangers like swimming the ocean, mountain climbing, etc. I mean in danger of attack by other people)? For purposes of this question, I’m looking at this from the standpoint of an average civilian, and not an extraordinary target, such as a soldier or government official.

From personal experience, the slums around any Latin American capitals are a sure place to find death unless you are well known there. I am sure it applies to many other cities all around the world.

The problem with making such a claim is that it is extremely difficult to gather data in dangerous areas. I worked in Baghdad for a 2+ years and any kind of social data was hard to come by. We worked with a community leader to gather info in one neighborhood, just things like if people had electricity, running water, etc. so we could do a needs assesment. He got killed for asking too many questions.

I was just going to say Rio. I’d rather be in Baghdad.

This site – http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/murder.html – lists Colombia as having the highest murder rate in 2003, with South Africa close behind.

I would guess that there are areas in Africa where your chance as an ordinary citizen of being murdered is even higher but recordkeeping is too poor for it to show up in statistics. Especially those areas where rival tribes have been trying to genocide eachother.

That’s what I thought as well. And to extent, it seems like it’d be subjective…not to take away from the other responses (I appreciate it, by the way), but Rio is more dangerous than Baghdad? Possible, I suppose, and I’m not arguing the point, but just in my limited experience in world travels and from gathering news, it seems as though Baghdad would be worse.

But yes, any large city (or small one, for that matter) is dangerous if you run across the wrong people.

Do you mean dangerous for the people living there or dangerous for an obvious outsider coming in? Cause those could be two very different things.

I honestly don’t know, but in Baghdad, you face soldiers and insurgents with guns. In Rio you face poor kids with knives. Soweto (near Johannesburg) doesn’t sound much better. I’d rather face soldiers.

Still, your survival rate in those places is probably a bit higher than in Antarctica or inside of an active volcano, of course. Are we just talking about danger due to street violence?

Walking around Miami with a sign saying “I (heart) Castro”.

On thinking about it, you’re right; they can be very different. Let’s just take it in a broad way, since “insiders” can be killed/injured as easily as “outsiders”.

Man’s violence to man. My hope in the OP was to differentiate between “natural” danger, such as climbing into a volcano, and “artificial” danger, such as being attacked on the street by a mugger or insurgent. I’m also assuming, for the question, that “you” are a civilian, say, at a market, and not a soldier deliberately trying to quell violence, but instead, trying to go about your daily life.

Ah, OK.

As an outsider, if I were to be suddenly transported to anywhere, I’d still pick Baghdad. At least I’d stand a reasonable chance of finding a US soldier who could put me somewhere safe. In Rio or Soweto, even insiders can’t expect to live long. (Though some live to old age somehow.)

It’s conditional.

If you are a Evangelical Christian, I’d avoid Sudan.

Would “man’s violence to man” include risk of starvation due to civil war, for example? The Darfur region of Sudan is frequently in the news and the word genocide is being used to describe the situation.
http://www.savedarfur.org/newsroom/policypapers/briefing_paper_the_genocide_in_darfur/

Hillary Clinton’s snizz

Somalia and other “failed states” have got to be at the head of any list.

I haven’t read this book, but a friend did and loved it: Amazon.com

Walk through Compton, Detroit or Harlem wearing a “Kill the Niggers” sign while wearing KKK robes. :rolleyes:

There’s Dangerous Areas, and then there’s Deliberate Suicide. One does not necessarily equate with the other.

You mean like Rex Kramer–Danger Seeker?

Actually, I was thinking of more immediate consequences, but for the sake of discussion, sure, as long as it’s a result of the war, and not drought, or other natural catastrophe.

Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd

Just in Minneapolis, or in any large American city? There was a book a few years ago exploring various MLKs around the country as microcosms of the urban black experience, and unfortunately many - most? - of them were less than pleasant boulevards, IIRC. Cleveland has an MLK which has both its nice and its not-so-nice stretches.

How about Chernobyl? Or in the crater of an active volcano?

Brian