Washington, Oct. 11 (ANI): Mexico has been officially named as the 'most dangerous country' in the world, with five of its cities figuring in the list of 'top 10 deadly global murder capitals', according to a new survey.
A recently released report based on 2011 statistics by the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, a private organization and wing of COPARMEX, the Mexican Employers' Association, revealed that Ciudad Juarez, Acapulco, Chihuahua, Durango and Torreon are the top Mexican cities with the worst murder rates around the world.
The most violent city in the U.S., New Orleans, came in 21st on the list with 199 murders out of a population of 343,829, or a rate of 57.88 per 100,000, while other U.S. cities making the "hit" list include: number 30, Detroit, with 48 per 100,000; number 43, St. Louis, with 35 per 100,000; and number 48, Baltimore, with 31 per 100,000, the New York Daily News reports.
The dubious honor of 'most violent urban area' in the world went to the Honduran metropolis of San Pedro Sula, where 1,143 of its 719,447 citizens were killed in just 12 months.
The study also looked at districts that were the most violent.
A total of 45 of the 50 districts were in Latin America, with 19 in Mexico and Central America, which researchers said gave an idea of where the most violence was occurring in the world at the moment, while forty of the 50 most dangerous cities are in Latin America, including 14 in Brazil and a dozen in Mexico, the report said.
The report named Cortes in Honduras as the 'top murfder district', of which San Pedro Sula is the capital, with 122 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
The most violent cities for 2011, concluded in the report, were as follows:
1. San Pedro, Sula Honduras
2. Juarez, Mexico
3. Maceio, Brazil
4. Acapulco, Mexico
5. Distrito Central, Honduras
6. Caracas, Venezuela
7. Torreon, Mexico
8. Chihuahua, Mexico
9. Durango, Mexico
10. Belem, Brazil (ANI)