Tim Leffel on the safety of traveling abroad

Over at the Cheapest Destinations blog, Tim Leffel discusses the safety of traveling abroad, and offers up some sound advice for those of you who have a friend or family member that worries about the level of crime where ever you may be traveling to.

“… do some digging around and get some stats to compare apples with apples. Chances are you’ll be amazed how much worse crime is in your own home town than where you’re going on the other side of the world.”

I decided to do just that for my upcoming trip to India this December. According to Wikipedia, the population of Mumbai (my first destination in India) in 2001 was 11,914,398. Springfield, Missouri—where I currently live—has a population of 151,580. The number of recorded murders in Mumbai in 2004 was 250, while the number of murders in Springfield, Missouri in 2004 was 8. So for Mumbai, that makes 1 murder in every 47,657 people, and for Springfield, 1 murder in every 18,947. Statistically speaking, my chances of getting murdered at home are more than double than when I am in Mumbai. This is far from accurate, but it’s a fairly good approximation. So there you go, Mom.

Check out Tim Leffel’s blog post on the safety of traveling abroad.

Happy Thanksgiving!