Morocco 3rd Safest Country in Africa: Gallup

Morocco continues to slowly but surely climb the world ranking for security. According to the Gallup 2017 Law and Order study, the kingdom is ranked 43rd safest in the world with a score of 83, placing it in third place in Africa, behind Rwanda and Algeria.

Gallup, an American research services company operating since 1935, recently published the 2017 Global Law and Order report, investigating people’s confidence in their local police and their sense of safety in their city. The study, based on a survey, surveyed some 136,000 people over the age of 15 in 2016, with a total of 135 countries.

Based on four questions, relating to confident in local police, thefts and assaults, safety walking alone at night, the respondents rated their country of residence on an overall scale of 100 points. As a result, Gallup “sees strong relationships between the interviewees’ answers to these questions and external measures related to economic and social development.” The company perceive this observation to “reinforce how high crime can suppress social cohesion and negatively affect economic performance.”

Morocco ranked among countries where citizens have confidence in their local police and feel safe walking alone at night. The kingdom scored 83 out of 100 points in the global ranking, making it the 43rd out of 135 countries on the 2016 list.

Among Arab countries, Morocco came in third, preceded by Algeria (90 points) and Jordan (89 points). Algeria came in seventh worldwide, while Jordan took ninth place.

On the regional level, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region ranks 5th out of 10, behind the United States and Canada (the top ranking region), South-East Asia, and Western Europe. It is ahead of Eastern Europe, South Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. The MENA region totals 82 points in 2016 and is thus gaining 3 points compared to 2015.

Many developed countries did not make to the top of the ranking, such as France, which occupies the 56th place with 80 points, behind Morocco and ahead of South Korea which came 52nd and Italy in 61st.

Globally, Singapore was on the top of the list with a total of 97points, followed by Uzbekistan (95 points), Iceland (92 points) and then Turkmenistan (91 points), while the lowest position went to Venezuela (42 points).

The study also indicates that the least safe region in the world, according to respondents, is Latin America and the Caribbean.

In total, the Gallup index found that more than 68 percent said they have confidence in their local police, while 64 percent feel safe walking alone at night where they live.

Source: BNA