Safe Cities Index 2015: assessing urban security in the digital age

The Safe Cities Index 2015 is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by NEC. The report points out how the frequency of terrorism and natural disasters has changed the nature of urban safety: power, communications and transport systems must be robust and able to withstand new external shocks. Meanwhile, new risks emerge. It highlights urban safety as a critical issue set to become even more important over time and that securing public safety should address a wide—and evolving—range of risks. The Safe Cities Index aims to capture this complexity. The report is based on an index composed of more than 40 quantitative and qualitative indicators. These indicators are split across four thematic categories: digital security; health security; infrastructure safety; and personal safety. Every city in the Index is scored across these four categories. The Index focuses on 50 cities selected by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), based on factors such as regional representation and availability of data. The analysis of the Index results, conducted by the EIU, was supplemented with wide-ranging research and in-depth interviews with experts in the field.