Portugal vs the UK and US: how safe is it really?

On the 2025 Global Peace Index, Portugal ranks 7th of 163 countries with a score of 1.371; the United Kingdom is 30th (1.634) and the United States 128th (2.443). A lower score means more peaceful, so Portugal is materially ahead of both — and the US sits in the bottom third of the table. 2025 Global Peace Index: Portugal 7th, UK 30th, US 128th. That is one defensible number for a buyer comparing home and Porto. But it is a national reading, not a street one, and I will say where it stops.

I'm Tomás, an advisor to Privilege Gardens; I run the project's data work, so read the disclosure at the end. The honest job here is to give you the grade-A sources first — the index (Global Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace) and Portugal's official RASI crime report — and then to be precise about what they do not say.

The national comparison: Portugal, the UK and the US

The cleanest, most defensible comparison is the Global Peace Index, an annual ranking of 163 independent states and territories produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, an Australia-based NGO. It scores national peacefulness across 23 indicators, and a lower score is more peaceful.

	GPI rank (of 163)	GPI score
Portugal	7th	1.371
United Kingdom	30th	1.634
United States	128th	2.443

The gap is not marginal. Portugal at 7th sits in the same top tier as Switzerland and Singapore; in 2025 it moved up 1 place, from 8th in 2024, while Iceland led the scoreboard for the 17th consecutive year. The UK at 30th and the US at 128th are both well below — the US, at 2.443, is in the bottom third of the 163 states ranked. For a buyer leaving the United Kingdom or the United States, that is a real, sourced contrast rather than a brochure adjective. The publisher's own framing is plain: this is a measure of "national peacefulness" across 23 indicators, which is exactly why the next section matters.

The official crime data: RASI 2024

A peace index is one lens; the hard national crime data is another, and Portugal publishes it. RASI 2024 — the Relatório Anual de Segurança Interna, Portugal's official annual internal-security report covering calendar year 2024 — recorded 354,878 criminal reports, which is 17,117 fewer than 2023, a fall of 4.6% in general crime. RASI states there was "uma diminuição da criminalidade geral de 4,6%." Homicides numbered 89 nationwide, below the 10-year average of 93.4 — an extremely low absolute figure for a country of about 10.6 million people.

That is the reassuring headline, and it is official, not crowd-sourced. But the same report carries the counterweight, so I will put it up front rather than bury it.

The honest limits

Here is where the comparison stops, stated plainly in 3 parts.

First, a national index is not a street-safety reading. The Global Peace Index measures national peacefulness across 23 indicators — conflict, societal security, militarisation — not pickpocketing on a given street. Do not over-read a 7th-place national rank into a claim that any one Porto street is safe. The documented Porto risk is petty theft in the crowded tourist core, not violent crime; that is a separate question from the national index, and I treat it separately in the sibling piece below.

Second, not every number moved the reassuring way. RASI 2024 also records that violent and serious crime rose 2.6% — 14,385 reports — which the report frames as "a menor subida em uma década," the smallest increase in a decade, on a very low absolute base. Both directions are in the same official report: general crime down 4.6%, violent crime up 2.6%. An honest reading carries both.

Third, perception is softer than the index, and it is only perception. Crowd-sourced Numbeo data — contributor-submitted, not official statistics — gives Porto a Safety Index of 66.3 and a Crime Index of 33.7, with daytime walking safety rated 82.1 (very high) dropping to 58.4 at night, and a "Moderate" sense (54.1) that crime has risen over 5 years. That perceived rise sits against RASI's official 4.6% fall in general crime. Lead with the official data; note the perception; do not present a crowd-sourced figure as a statistic.

The reason to keep all 3 on the page is that any one of them, alone, oversells or undersells. The index alone reads as a slogan; RASI's 4.6% fall alone hides the 2.6% violent-crime rise; Numbeo's perception alone is just a mood. Together they say something defensible: by the recognised national measures, Portugal is materially more peaceful than the UK or the US, and the on-the-ground caveat is petty crime in the tourist zones — not the residential east where the question of a home actually lives.

This piece sits inside a wider safety question — what the picture looks like at street level, and why eastern Porto reads differently from the postcard core — set out in the guide is Porto safe?. For the on-the-ground companion to this national comparison, where the petty-crime risk actually concentrates, see where pickpocketing happens in Porto.

A note on our interest

We develop in Antas, so we have an interest in how "is it safe?" reads. That is exactly why this piece leads with grade-A sources you can re-check — the Global Peace Index from the Institute for Economics & Peace and Portugal's official RASI 2024 report — labels the crowd-sourced Numbeo figures as perception, and states the 2.6% violent-crime rise in the same breath as the 4.6% fall. Where the honest answer is "a national index does not measure your street," I have said so.

• Is Portugal safer than the UK and the US?+

  On the 2025 Global Peace Index, yes, by the index's own measure. Portugal ranks 7th of 163 countries with a score of 1.371, the United Kingdom 30th (1.634) and the United States 128th (2.443); a lower score means more peaceful, so Portugal sits materially ahead of both, and the US falls in the bottom third of the 163 states ranked. The index is produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace. It is a national peacefulness reading across 23 indicators, not a street-crime statistic — a defensible comparison, but read it as national context, not a Porto-specific safety claim.

• What is the Global Peace Index and who produces it?+

  The Global Peace Index is an annual ranking of 163 independent states and territories produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, an Australia-based NGO. It scores national peacefulness across 23 indicators — domains such as ongoing conflict, societal safety and security, and militarisation — where a lower score means more peaceful. In 2025 Iceland led the table for the 17th consecutive year, with Portugal 7th, up one place from 8th in 2024.

• What does the official Portuguese crime data say?+

  RASI 2024, Portugal's official annual internal-security report, recorded 354,878 criminal reports in 2024 — 17,117 fewer than 2023, a 4.6% fall in general crime — and 89 homicides nationwide, below the 10-year average of 93.4. The honest counterweight: violent and serious crime rose 2.6% (14,385 reports), which RASI itself frames as the smallest increase in a decade, on a low absolute base. Both directions are in the same report.

• Does a high peace-index rank mean Porto's streets are safe?+

  Not directly, and it should not be read that way. The Global Peace Index measures national peacefulness across 23 indicators, not street-level crime in any one city. For Porto the documented risk is petty theft — pickpocketing in the crowded tourist core, not violent crime. Crowd-sourced Numbeo data, which is perception-based rather than official, gives Porto a Safety Index of 66.3 and rates daytime walking safety 82.1 (very high), dropping to 58.4 at night — consistent with a petty-crime-after-dark pattern, not violence.

• How do I read these safety numbers honestly?+

  Lead with the official, grade-A sources and treat the rest as context. The 2025 Global Peace Index (7th of 163) is a national reading, not a city one; RASI 2024 is the official crime data, and it shows both a 4.6% fall in general crime and a 2.6% rise in violent crime. Numbeo's Porto figures are crowd-sourced perception, not statistics. No country is crime-free — the honest takeaway is that Portugal ranks among the most peaceful nations measured, with the usual big-city petty-crime caveat for the tourist core.

Sources & method⌄

1. Global Peace Index 2025 — Portugal 7th (1.371), UK 30th (1.634), US 128th (2.443); produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, ranks 163 states (lower score = more peaceful)
2. RASI 2024 (Relatório Anual de Segurança Interna) — general crime −4.6% (354,878 reports), violent crime +2.6% (14,385), 89 homicides; official gov.pt report
3. Diário de Notícias — RASI 2024 summary (general crime fell 4.6%, violent crime rose 2.6%, 89 homicides below the decade average)
4. Numbeo — Crime in Porto (crowd-sourced): Safety Index 66.3, Crime Index 33.7, daytime 82.1 / night 58.4
5. The Portugal News — Portugal up to 7th on the 2025 Global Peace Index (from 8th in 2024)