The 50 most violent cities in the world

Latin America holds the ignominious distinction of having the most cities on Mexico’s Citizens’ Council for Public Security’s annual ranking of the world’s most violent cities for 2016.

Of the 50 cities on the list, 43 are in Latin America, including 19 in Brazil, eight in Mexico, and eight in Venezuela.

The region’s violence is in large part drug related, driven by traffickers and supplemented by gang wars, political instability, and widespread poverty that has been exacerbated by sluggish economic growth or economic reversals.

The council’s ranking contains cities with populations of more than 300,000 and does not count deaths in combat zones or cities with unavailable data, so some dangerous cities don’t appear on the list

In some cases, the Council has determined homicide rates through estimates based on incomplete data.

In Venezuela, for example, the government has not consistently released homicide data (though it did this year), so to find the rate for Caracas, the Council made an estimate based on entries at the Bello Monte morgue - though, as the Council admits, that morgue receives bodies from an area much larger than Caracas itself.

50. Durban, South Africa, had 34.43 homicides per 100,000 residents.

49. Curitiba, Brazil, had 34.92 homicides per 100,000 residents.

48. Cucuta, Colombia, had 37 homicides per 100,000 residents.

47. Vitoria, Brazil, had 37.54 homicides per 100,000 residents.

46. Manaus, Brazil, had 38.25 homicides per 100,000 residents.

45. Macapa, Brazil, had 30.25 homicides per 100,000 residents.

44. Armenia, Colombia, had 38.54 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Armenia was the home of Carlos Lehder - a cocaine-addled neo-Nazi who helped start the Medellin cartel.

43. Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, had 39.19 homicides per 100,000 residents.

42. Goiânia y Aparecida de Goiânia, Brazil, had 39.48 homicides per 100,000 residents.

41. Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, had 40.95 homicides per 100,000 residents.

40. Chihuahua, Mexico, had 42.02 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Read more about the disappeared Ayotzinapa students here and here.

39. Cuiaba, Brazil, had 42.61 homicides per 100,000 residents.

38. Teresina, Brazil, had 42.84 homicides per 100,000 residents.

37. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, had 43.63 homicides per 100,000.

Read more about the cartel-related violence plaguing Ciudad Juarez.

36. Detroit had 44.60 homicides per 100,000 residents.

35. Fortaleza, Brazil, had 44.98 homicides per 100,000 residents.

34. New Orleans had 45.17 homicides per 100,000 residents.

33. São Luís, Brazil, had 45.41 homicides per 100,000 residents.

32. Kingston, Jamaica, had 45.43 homicides per 100,000 residents.

31. Palmira, Colombia, had 46.30 homicides per 100,000 residents.

30. Gran Barcelona, Venezuela, had 46.86 homicides per 100,000 residents.

29. João Pessoa, Brazil, had 47.57 homicides per 100,000 residents.

28. Recife, Brazil, had 47.89 homicides per 100,000 residents.

27. Mazatlan, Mexico, had 48.75 homicides per 100,000 residents.

26. Baltimore had 51.14 homicides per 100,000 residents.

25. Maceio, Brazil, had 51.78 homicides per 100,000 residents.

24. Culiacan, Mexico, had 51.81 homicides per 100,000 residents.

23. Guatemala City, Guatemala, had 52.73 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Cocaine seizures in Guatemala, a major drug transshipment point, recently hit a 10-year high.

22. Tijuana, Mexico, had 53.06 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Over the last two years, Tijuana has seen a spike in homicides, as rival cartels compete for control.

21. Cali, Colombia, had 54 homicides per 100,000 residents.

20. Salvador, Brazil, had 54.71 homicides per 100,000 residents.

19. Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil, had 56.45 homicides per 100,000 residents.

18. Cumana, Venezuela, had 59.31 homicides per 100,000 residents.

17. Barquisimeto, Venezuela, had 59.38 homicides per 100,000 residents.

16. Vitória da Conquista, Brazil, had 60.10 homicides per 100,000 residents.

15. Feira de Santana, Brazil, had 60.23 homicides per 100,000 residents.

14. St. Louis had 60.37 homicides per 100,000 residents.

13. Cape Town, South Africa, had 60.77 homicides per 100,000 residents.

12. Aracaju, Brazil, had 62.76 homicides per 100,000 residents.

11. Belém, Brazil, had 67.41 homicides per 100,000 residents.

10. Natal, Brazil, had 69.56 homicides per 100,000 residents.

9. Valencia, Venezuela, had 72.02 homicides per 100,000 residents.

8. Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, had 82.84 homicides per 100,000 residents.

7. San Salvador, El Salvador, had 83.39 homicides per 100,000 residents.

6. Maturin, Venezuela, had 84.21 homicides per 100,000 residents.

5. Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, had 84.67 homicides per 100,000 residents.

4. Distrito Central, Honduras, had 85.09 homicides per 100,000 residents.

3. San Pedro Sula, Honduras, had 112.09 homicides per 100,000 residents.

2. Acapulco, Mexico, had 113.24 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Acapulco, and Guerrero state as a whole, has been shaken by spiraling narco violence for more than a year.

1. Caracas, Venezuela, had 130.35 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Official data, released by the Venezuelan government for the first time in several years, put Venezuela's 2016 homicide rate at at 70.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world and up from 58 in 2015.

Another estimate from a nongovernment organization put the national homicide rate at 91.8 per 100,000 people.

Read more about life in Caracas here.