Islamabad and Lahore have outperformed several major international capitals and metropolitan centers, including London, Paris and New York, in the Numbeo 2026 Mid-Year Crime Index.
The global ranking puts a spot on perceived safety across more than 400 cities worldwide, placing multiple Pakistani urban centers ahead of well-known global destinations.
Numbeo, a user-contributed database, generates its rankings entirely from public perception surveys rather than verified law enforcement records or official government statistics.
The index evaluates factors such as general crime levels, safety concerns while walking alone during the day and at night, public fear of robbery, assault and property crimes, alongside perceptions of corruption and violent offenses.
Because the system relies on crowdsourced feedback from residents and visitors, the figures reflect how safe people feel within a city rather than documented police reports.
In the mid-year release covering 402 cities globally, Islamabad recorded the lowest score among all surveyed Pakistani locations, positioning it as the safest city in the country according to respondents.
Islamabad scored a Crime Index of 30.8, putting it at position 318 overall. Lahore followed with a score of 36.2 at rank 281. Further down the list, Rawalpindi posted a score of 52.0, while Karachi recorded the highest perception of crime among the evaluated Pakistani cities with a score of 57.6, placing it at rank 90 globally.
The scores place both Islamabad and Lahore ahead of major international hubs on the list. The two Pakistani cities reported lower crime perception levels than global destinations such as Washington, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, Tehran, Los Angeles, Jakarta, Cairo, Istanbul, Rome, Berlin, Mumbai, Toronto, Bangkok, Mexico City and Dhaka.
