#14. Cape Town, South Africa: 66.80 per 100,000
Cape Town is the most visited city on this ranking by a wide margin, and the contradiction it represents is genuine rather than statistical sleight of hand. It is simultaneously one of the world’s most celebrated destinations and one of its most violent cities.
The explanation is spatial. Apartheid-era planning pushed the majority of the population into townships on the Cape Flats, physically separated from the city bowl and the Atlantic seaboard. Gang structures in those areas, some operating for generations, account for a large share of killings.
Table Mountain, the V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay and the Winelands sit in a different Cape Town entirely, and millions of visitors pass through them without incident each year. Both realities are true at once.