Safest countries in South America (2026)

Short version

Where Paraguay really sits

• Argentina, Uruguay and Chile are South America's safest on the Global Peace Index 2025 — Argentina overtook Uruguay this year to lead the region; Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia are the most dangerous.
• Paraguay is upper-middle: 4th of South America's countries on the Global Peace Index 2025 (~75th globally), but 2nd-highest (safest-feeling) on Numbeo's 2026 Safety Index after Uruguay.
• On homicides, Paraguay (~6.2 per 100k, 2023) is roughly a third of Brazil's rate and about a quarter of Colombia's — genuinely safer.
• The honest caveat: petty crime — phone snatching, opportunistic theft, motorcycle robbery — is common in Asunción and Ciudad del Este. Violent crime against foreigners is rare; carelessness costs phones.
• Which Paraguayan city you pick changes your risk profile. See our safety guide and the regions breakdown.

The ranking

South America ranked by three real metrics (2026)

Each metric measures something different. The Global Peace Index (GPI) 2025, published by the Institute for Economics & Peace, scores broad societal peace — crime, conflict, militarization (lower score = more peaceful). Numbeo's Safety Index 2026 is a crowd-sourced perception survey (higher = feels safer). The intentional homicide rate is the hardest number — murders per 100,000 people, sourced from national statistics via UNODC. We sort the table by GPI 2025 rank.

GPI ranks other than Paraguay's (75th, confirmed in the 2025 report) are approximate positions within the published 2025 list — Argentina (~47), Uruguay (~48) and Chile (~62) cluster at the top of South America, but exact global ranks vary by a few places between source revisions, so confirm against the official Vision of Humanity report before quoting a precise number. Argentina overtook Uruguay in the 2025 edition to become the region's most peaceful country. Homicide figures are the latest available; Paraguay's 2023 rate is reported at roughly 6.2 (World Bank) to 6.8 (other UNODC-derived revisions). Venezuela's official homicide rate is widely regarded as unreliable — government figures sit near 12 while independent NGO estimates run far higher (mid-20s+), so we show it as disputed rather than a single number.

Reading the data

Why the three metrics disagree — and what that tells you

Notice that Paraguay ranks 4th in South America on the GPI but 2nd on Numbeo. That gap is the whole story. The GPI penalizes Paraguay for things tourists never feel — its proximity to the Tri-Border drug corridor, institutional weakness, perceptions of internal conflict. Numbeo, by contrast, captures how safe people actually feel walking around day to day, and on that measure Paraguay scores higher than Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay's relatively high homicide rate (~11) versus its top safety score is the inverse: organized-crime killings inflate the statistic without making daily life feel dangerous to most residents.

• Homicide rate is the metric that matters most for "will I be murdered" — and here Paraguay is genuinely good: roughly a third of Brazil's rate, about a quarter of Colombia's, and a fraction of Ecuador's, which rose roughly five- to sixfold from 2020 to 2023.
• Numbeo is the metric that matters most for "will my day feel safe" — Paraguay scores 40.5, second only to Uruguay.
• GPI is the broad-strokes geopolitical view — Paraguay's mid-table rank reflects regional and institutional factors, not your street-level risk.
• Paraguay's GPI score actually improved from 2.044 (2024) to 1.981 (2025) — a lower score means more peaceful, so it is trending safer, not worse (it slipped one place to 75th globally only because others improved faster).

Paraguay specifics

What safety in Paraguay actually looks like

The honest picture: Paraguay is one of the calmer countries in South America for an expat, but it is not crime-free, and the risk is almost entirely property crime, not violence. Phone snatching, bag theft on buses, opportunistic burglary of unsecured homes, and motorcycle-borne grab-and-go robbery exist in Asunción and especially in Ciudad del Este near the Brazilian border. Violent crime targeting foreigners is rare. The practical rules are the same as any mid-tier Latin American capital: do not flash a phone at a traffic light, use registered taxis or apps at night, do not leave laptops visible in cars. The Tri-Border Area (Ciudad del Este / Foz do Iguaçu / Puerto Iguazú) has a real organized-crime and smuggling reputation — that is a border-economy issue, not something that touches a resident living a normal life in the city center.

• Asunción — the capital, lowest-friction for newcomers; normal big-city street-smarts apply. Cost of living ~US$ 1,082/month all-in for a single person.
• Encarnación — southern river city, beaches, popular with retirees; widely regarded as the calmest of the three main expat cities.
• Ciudad del Este — business and trade hub on the Brazil border; economically vibrant but the highest petty-crime and border-crime exposure of the three.
• Read the full breakdown in our Paraguay safety guide and pick a city in the regions guide.

Blunt caveat: anyone telling you Paraguay is "totally safe" or "as dangerous as Brazil" is selling something. The data says upper-middle — safer than the regional average on homicide, with ordinary petty-crime risk in its two largest cities.

If safety is your deciding factor

Choosing where to move on safety alone

If pure statistics drove the decision, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile top the region — but they are generally more expensive, harder to get residency in, and tax worldwide income. Paraguay's appeal is the combination: respectable safety, one of the lowest costs of living among the safer countries, a territorial tax system (foreign income taxed at 0%), and an unusually easy residency. That trade-off is the entire reason people pick it over its safer-on-paper neighbors.

• Residency is administrative under Ley 6984/2022 via the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones — no investment minimum and no language test on the standard route, ~US$ 460 in government fees. See the residency guide.
• Tax is territorial (Ley 6380/2019): foreign-source income is 0%, local personal income (IRP) is 8–10%, corporate income (IRE) 10%, VAT (IVA) 10%; you become a tax resident at 183 days. See taxes and tax residency.
• Investors can get direct permanent residency via the Investor Pass / SUACE route in about five days. See investor pass.
• Weigh Paraguay against the safer-but-pricier options in our country comparison.

Common questions

Safety in South America & Paraguay — FAQ