Two Southeast Asian countries are among the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world.

The ranking was conducted by the US-based financial comparison website Hellosafe based on a "travel safety index" with 35 different criteria divided into 5 categories, including: frequency of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, floods, droughts, etc.); social violence (terrorism, murder rate compared to population, access to weapons, etc.); participation in armed conflict (internal or external); health infrastructure (number of hospitals, doctors per population, health budget per capita, etc.) and militarization .

Based on these indices, countries are ranked on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being the safest and 100 being the most dangerous.

Hellosafe assures readers that, “this index is not intended to reflect a country’s attractiveness to tourists , but rather a global indicator of security and safety based on the largest possible number of objective criteria.”

Two countries in Southeast Asia are among the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world - Photo 1.

An iconic Philippine jeep on the streets of Manila, a vehicle many tourists want to test in this country - PHOTO: Nathaniel Gonzales

And, with those indicators, the Philippines tops the top 10 most dangerous countries with a score of 82.32 out of 100, mainly influenced by "high levels of violence in society."

In fact, the Philippines has many unsafe areas. In October 2024, American YouTuber Elliot Onil Eastman, 26, was kidnapped at gunpoint from a small island in the south of the country by four masked men disguised as police officers. The tourist is now presumed dead.

The Philippines is also home to Islamic militant groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist organization known for kidnapping foreigners for ransom.

Despite the perceived dangers, the Philippines remains a popular destination with 5.4 million foreign tourists expected to visit its beautiful Southeast Asian islands by 2024.

Coming in second and third place are Colombia (79.21) and Mexico (78.42), both of which have high crime and kidnapping rates.

Also in the top 5 most dangerous countries are India and Russia with scores of 77.86 and 75.65 respectively.

This comes amid growing fears that war could break out between India and Pakistan following clashes in the disputed region of Kashmir last month.

In Southeast Asia, in addition to the Philippines in the number 1 position, Indonesia is ranked 7th. Myanmar, a country experiencing domestic political instability, is not included in the rankings because for several years now it has not been considered a tourist destination for the majority of visitors.

Meanwhile, the US ranked as the 14th least safe country to travel to with a score of 59.47 despite crime generally trending down in the country's major cities, according to The New York Post.