Homicide rates and car theft have decreased in practically all regions since the early 2000s, with the main exceptions being regions in Chile, the United States and Mexico.
Safety contributes to the attractiveness of regions and is often connected with other well-being outcomes such as education, health and jobs. Consequently, policies aiming to ensure safe environments for residents often build on the complementarities with those other dimensions.
Homicide rates have, on average, decreased within the OECD from almost three homicides per 100 000 inhabitants in 2000-02 to around two in 2014-16. However, in 20% of OECD regions, the homicides rates increased by more than 10% during this period, including regions in Canada, Chile, Italy, Mexico and the United States. Capital regions followed the overall downtrend, except for Santiago (Chile) and Mexico City (Federal District, Mexico). Mexico has the highest regional variation in homicides among OECD countries. In 2013-16, the state of Colima (Mexico) recorded more than 62 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants, while in Yucatan (Mexico) there were less than 3 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants ( 2.14). Large regional differences in homicides rates are also observed in the United States, Chile and Canada, the regional difference being around 12 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants, due to high rates in the District of Columbia, Aysén and Yukon, respectively, compared to the rest of the country. Among the safest countries are Austria (0.5), Norway, Iceland and Switzerland (all 0.6), where differences between top and bottom regions are on average also relatively low ( 2.14).
