The city in South Africa that has just been ranked as the third most violent place in the world
Gqeberha has received the dishonour of being ranked as the third most violent city in the world, with a murder rate climbing into the triple digits—a first for any South African city ranked.
The city made the shocking climb on the annual ranking compiled by the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice in association with the Mexican Commission on Human Rights.
The ranking has been compiled annually for over a decade and lists the 50 most violent cities in the world by the number of murders per 100,000 people.
Only cities with populations exceeding 300,000 where murder statistics are available are considered for the ranking, but at least three major South African metros have qualified since 2013.
In the 2025/26 ranking, six South African cities were ranked, led by Gqeberha, with Pietermaritzburg joining for the first time.
Cape Town, Gqeberha (listed as Nelson Mandela Bay) and Durban have been on the ranking since 2013. Johannesburg entered in 2015.
While Gqeberha leads as the most violent city in South Africa, it only took the title in 2023 when it surpassed Cape Town for the first time.
Historically, Cape Town had been the most violent South African city in the ranking, reaching a high of 8th overall in 2019.
The rankings are based on murder rate, with Gqeberha previously attaining the all-time high of 78.3 murders per 100,000 people in 2023.
This dropped to 70.9 per 100,000 in 2024, but has now surged to a record 119.8 in 2025.
Except for Pietermaritzburg, which has made its debut on the ranking, all other South African cities improved their murder rates.
However, only Johannesburg and Buffalo City improved their positioning on the ranking—reflecting improvement relative to other cities ranked.
The average homicide rate for the 50 cities is 58.19 per 100,000 inhabitants, and 17 cities are above that average, including Durban, Cape Town and Gqeberha.
It is also worth noting that, despite falling lower on the rankings, cities like Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town occupy three of the top five spots when it comes to the sheer number of murders.
- Port-au-Prince (Port Principe) in Haiti: 6,185
- Cape Town: 3,441
- Guayaquil in Ecuador: 3,115
- Joburg: 2,569
- Durban: 2,390
50 most violent cities in the world
Tracking the data from 2013, it is also alarming to note how murder rates have worsened over the last 12 years.
- Cape Town’s murder rate increased from 51.0 to 68.8 (an increase of 35%).
- Durban’s murder rate increased from 32.4 to 57.4 (an increase of 77%).
- Gqeberha’s murder rate increased from 35.7 to 119.8 (an increase of 236%).
- Joburg’s murder rate increased from 33.3 to 39.6 (an increase of 19%).
Murder rates in South Africa
| Year | CCT | DBN | NMB | JHB | BUF | PMB |
| 2013 | 51.0 | 32.4 | 35.7 | – | – | – |
| 2014 | 60.0 | 34.7 | 34.9 | – | – | – |
| 2015 | 65.5 | 35.9 | 35.8 | 33.3 | – | – |
| 2016 | 60.8 | 34.4 | 39.2 | – | – | – |
| 2017 | 62.3 | 38.1 | 37.5 | – | – | – |
| 2018 | 66.4 | 38.5 | 39.2 | – | – | – |
| 2019 | 68.3 | 40.5 | 45.8 | 36.2 | – | – |
| 2020 | 64.0 | 43.4 | 51.2 | 37.2 | – | – |
| 2021 | 62.2 | 40.0 | 52.3 | 30.8 | – | – |
| 2022 | 63.0 | 59.4 | 57.0 | 41.4 | – | – |
| 2023 | 63.9 | 65.0 | 78.3 | 49.5 | – | – |
| 2024 | 70.2 | 58.4 | 70.9 | 49.0 | 60.2 | – |
| 2025 | 68.8 | 57.4 | 119.8 | 39.6 | 52.0 | 30.8 |
Global Ranking South Africa
| Year | CCT | DBN | NMB | JHB | BUF | PMB |
| 2013 | 20th | 48th | 41st | – | – | – |
| 2014 | 14th | 38th | 35th | – | – | – |
| 2015 | 9th | 41st | 42nd | 47th | – | – |
| 2016 | 13th | 50th | 43rd | – | – | – |
| 2017 | 15th | 44th | 46th | – | – | – |
| 2018 | 15th | 47th | 45th | – | – | – |
| 2019 | 8th | 35th | 24th | 41st | – | – |
| 2020 | 10th | 31st | 22nd | 40th | – | – |
| 2021 | 11th | 35th | 23rd | 48th | – | – |
| 2022 | 12th | 15th | 18th | 34th | – | – |
| 2023 | 17th | 16th | 9th | 24th | – | – |
| 2024 | 16th | 20th | 14th | 23rd | 18th | – |
| 2025 | 15th | 19th | 3rd | 31st | 22nd | 45th |
Murder statistics published by the SAPS
The data broadly aligns with local crime stats reported by the South African Police Service.
South Africa recorded 23,642 murders between January and December 2025, averaging 65 murders every day.
While this is lower than in 2024, it still gives the country an alarming murder rate of around 38 per 100,000 people—one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Looking at provincial data, the Eastern Cape (Gqeberha and Buffalo City) has the highest murder rate, followed by the Western Cape (Cape Town), KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) and Gauteng (Johannesburg).
The Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice ranking takes the data to a more granular, city-level.
While South African cities featuring on a South American-centric ranking are an anomaly, it shouldn’t be surprising.
The ranking is dominated by South American cities, which are known to be extremely violent places on the global stage.
The only non-South American cities are the six from South Africa and three from the United States.
The group stressed that it uses official government data for the ranking and follows a methodology similar to that of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime. It also excludes countries at war.
“One phenomenon observed during wars is that the countries involved stop reporting homicide figures because, in general, states experience disruption to their normal functioning,” it said.
This means that countries like Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine do not feature.
South Africa murders reported by the SAPS
| Murders | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January-March | 4,589 | 4,976 | 6,083 | 6,289 | 6,536 | 5,727 |
| April-June | 3,466 | 5,760 | 6,424 | 6,228 | 6,198 | 5,770 |
| July-September | 5,099 | 6,163 | 7,004 | 6,945 | 6,545 | 5,794 |
| October-December | 6,297 | 6,859 | 7,555 | 7,710 | 6,953 | 6,351 |
| Total | 19,451 | 23,758 | 27,066 | 27,172 | 26,232 | 23,642 |
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