Sticks and stones may break your bones, but stats like these can really hurt you.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have released their latest facts and figures, and included amongst those are global homicide rates.

South Africa is sitting on a homicide rate of 35.7 murders per 100,000 population, which means we can now claim to be the 9th most violent country in the world.

We’re also the second most violent in Africa – only Lesotho, at 37.5 murders per 100,000 population, pip us on the continent.

More below from BusinessTech:

The WHO tracked homicide rates across 194 countries, and found only 16 were in the “most violent” category – with more than 20 murders per 100,000 population. Aside from South Africa and Lesotho, all of the most violent countries were in South America.

A crime and safety report on Lesotho in 2015 noted that criminal behaviour within the land-locked country were starting to mimic that of the surrounding South Africa.

Endemic poverty and widespread unemployment continued to contribute to an increase in criminal activity, which the report labeled as at “critical” levels.

“Criminals are generally well-armed and are not averse to using violence in order to achieve their objective, especially when they encounter any type of resistance from a would-be victim,” the report said.

“Crimes committed at knifepoint have increased and are the most common force used; however, crimes committed at gunpoint are becoming more common as well.”

Here’s a list of the 16 most violent countries in the world – I think I just scratched Hondurus Honduras off my list of places to visit…

You want to break it down into South African cities? Of course you do:

A report compiled by the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice in January 2016, found that four South African cities had cracked the list of the 50 most violent places in the world.

Cape Town is South Africa’s most violent city, with 65.53 murders per 100,000 people – the 9th most violent city in the world.

Durban is the second most violent city in the country, with 35.93 murders per 100,000 people, followed by Nelson Mandela Bay (35.85 per 100,000 people) and Johannesburg (30.31 per 100,000 people).

Eish, at least we have the mountain and the sea.

[source:businesstech]

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