International Danger Cities

MDC  says, Mexico’s notoriously dangerous Ciudad Juárez may be a household name—for all the wrong reasons—but Honduras’ San Pedro Sula has ousted the Mexican metropolis as the world’s most violent city. Statistics from 2011 reveal that the city in northwest Honduras has beat out Ciudad Juárez as the murder capital of the world.

Although Ciudad Juárez—which the study says has a murder rate of 148 people per 100,000—has been ranked the most violent city for the last three years, San Pedro Sula has now surpassed it in a very bloody way.

Of the world’s 50 most violent cities, 40 are Latin American; 14 are in Brazil, 12 are in Mexico and five are in Colombia. Mexico lays claim to five of the top 10 urban areas listed in the study.

According to the report, the United States’ most violent city is New Orleans, which was ranked 21st on the list. New Orleans has a rate of 58 murders per 100,000 residents. Detroit, St. Louis and Baltimore also made the top 50.