Indonesia’s Capital City Jakarta at Bottom of Safe Cities Index 2015
In the Safe Cities Index 2015, launched by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta is ranked at the bottom of the index. The Safe Cities Index, which covers 50 large cities worldwide (selected on factors which include regional representation and availability of data), based its ranking on an average score across four categories: digital security, health security, infrastructure safety and personal safety. In 2014, data from the Jakarta Police showed that 213 out of every 100,000 Jakartans were victims of various crimes.
As the majority of people (about 3.9 billion people) on the planet live in cities, urban safety has become a critical issue that is set to become even more important as the process of urbanization continues to the future. Moreover, urban safety is closely related to wealth and economic development. In the Safe Cities Index 2015 there is a division detectable between those cities of developed markets (which tend to cluster in the upper half of the index) and cities in developing markets (which tend to be in the bottom half of the index).
Jakarta, a mega-city with more than 10 million inhabitants, scores weak in the general index (50th) as well as in the four separate categorical indices. Regarding digital safety, Jakarta ranks 48th (out of 50) as there is a lack of CCTVs across the city, as well as issues such as the frequency of identity theft and online scams. Regarding health safety Jakarta ranks 44th. This category assesses the city’s health security based on factors such as the hospital beds to population size ratio and number of doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, as well as healthcare facilities in case of a sudden disease outbreak or natural disaster. In terms of infrastructure safety, Jakarta ranks 48th as the city is characterized by a lack of quality and quantity of infrastructure, thus causing annual flooding in the rainy season and daily traffic congestion. Lastly, regarding personal safety, Jakarta ranks 45th particularly due to petty crime (such as pickpocketing).
Safe Cities Index 2015:
| City | Score/100 | Country | Life Expectancy |
| 1. Tokyo |
85.63 | Japan | 82 years |
| 2. Singapore | 84.61 | Singapore | 82 years |
| 3. Osaka | 82.36 | Japan | 83 years |
| 4. Stockholm | 80.02 | Sweden | 82 years |
| 5. Amsterdam | 79.19 | Netherlands | 79 years |
| 6. Sydney | 78.91 | Australia | 81 years |
| 7. Zurich | 78.84 | Switzerland | 84 years |
| 8. Toronto | 78.81 | Canada | 81 years |
| 9. Melbourne | 78.67 | Australia | 86 years |
| 10. New York | 78.08 | USA | 81 years |
| 50. Jakarta | 53.71 | Indonesia | 73 years |
Source: Safe Cities Index 2015
Further Reading:
• Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index 2015 Report