Is Jakarta Really One of the Most-Dangerous Cities on Earth? Not Even Close

Jakarta is a lot of things. Chaotic? Sure. Ugly? At times. But dangerous? Hell no.

So then why did the Indonesian capital get named as one of the most-dangerous cities on Earth by the Economist Intelligence Unit? Jakarta came in 57 on a list of 60 cities, putting the capital squarely in the basement of world cities. According to the report, Jakarta is a more dangerous city than Caracas, where murder rates are through the roof, and Karachi, where a gang war in a single neighborhood has claimed 800 lives in the last decade.

Well, if Jakarta isn't some crime-filled gangster's paradise, then why did it score so low on the list? Because the EIU's list isn't actually a ranking of safe cities. It's a ranking of rich cities, one where developing countries like Indonesia are doomed to fail not because our cities are full of violent crime, but because our streets have too many potholes.

Here's a list of what's important to the EIU when it comes to a city's safety: digital security, health security, infrastructure security, and personal security. So if a city has a lot of digital vulnerabilities, if it's a place where citizens are routinely attacked by viruses or say someone is able to hack into a video billboard and broadcast some Japanese porn outside the mayor's office, then it ranks pretty low. To see how important this metric is in the EIU's rankings consider this, Seoul rose 29 places by cleaning out computer viruses and cutting down on identity theft. Where's Jakarta? In last place. Maybe we should stop hacking Malaysia every time they accidentally invert our flag.

Jakarta scored in the bottom ten on health security (because our hospitals aren't… how do we say it… the best?) and personal security (because of a rise in terrorist attacks, thanks ISIS). Honestly, both of these are sorta true, so point taken EIU. But once again, strange things can result in a rise in your standings. The US city of Chicago zoned some urban farms and scored some points because of it. But, a city also needs to be walkable, fit, and full of clean air to score high on the list, all things we are terrible at providing citizens with.

The final metric is infrastructure security, which if you've spent even a day in Jakarta you know we're going to score terribly on. But surprisingly, this is the only category we're not in the bottom ten on, so I guess that MRT project is finally paying off (even if it isn't open yet).

So what does this all mean? Is Jakarta really that dangerous? No, not really. Look, our public transportation is unhackable, mainly because it's a barely regulated web of private cash-only businesses.

Our murder rate is pretty damn low, especially considering the fact that this is one of the world's most-populated metro areas. The reality is that it's really, really hard to buy a gun in this country, and our violent crime rates reflect this. The Jakarta Police reported 61 murders in 2016, that's 61 murders in a city of nearly 10 million—although, to be fair these figures probably aren't totally accurate, but even if that was only 10 percent of the total murders (unlikely) it still would be less than Chicago's murder rate.

But still, our elected officials really do need to fix our healthcare system which is one of the worst in the entire region. We could also make our digital infrastructure a lot more secure if companies finally stopped requiring employees to use their own laptops and phones in the office (talk about an easy fix).

But the city doesn't deserve the label as one of the most-dangerous places in the world. Not even close. So next time you see a list like this, take a step back and ask yourself, what are they really ranking? Then look up from your phone and take solace in the fact that you may be stuck in yet another traffic jam, but at least your city is pretty damn safe.