Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) has announced the insights of its 10th annual “State of Travel Insurance Safest Destinations” report, the longest-running research project evaluating U.S. travelers’ attitudes toward travel safety and travel insurance.
Travelers looking for inspiration for their 2025 getaways should keep destinations such as Iceland, Australia and Canada in mind, as they have been ranked as this year’s top three safest countries. The report also highlights the world’s safest cities, with Reykjavik, Copenhagen and Amsterdam taking the lead for 2025.
To determine these rankings, BHTP surveyed a large group of American travelers in August about their destinations over the past five years, allowing only those who have visited specific countries to rate them on safety. BHTP then augments those ratings with other indices and information to evaluate safety concerns such as terrorism, weather emergencies, health measures and the safety of underrepresented groups to calculate a weighted score that reflects each country’s overall safety.
Top 15 Safest Countries
- Iceland
- Australia
- Canada
- Ireland
- Switzerland
- New Zealand
- Germany
- Norway
- Japan
- Denmark
- Portugal
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- Netherlands
- Sweden
Top 15 Safest Cities
- Reykjavik
- Copenhagen
- Amsterdam
- Tokyo
- Sydney
- Montreal
- Seoul
- Singapore
- Berlin
- Hong Kong
- Venice
- London
- Honolulu
- Dubai
- Barcelona
In the 2025 rankings, Iceland has redeemed its position as the safest destination in the world for the first time in three years, despite volcanic eruptions in 2024. Australia and Canada, now in second and third place, respectively, have been climbing in the rankings over the past several years and have regularly made the top 10 list. Changes were also noted among the safest cities: Reykjavik reclaimed the top ranking after slipping from first place last year, while Honolulu dropped from the No. 1 spot to 13.
BHTP’s State of Travel Insurance research has been conducted each fall since 2016 by Polymath Research + Marketing, using independent national panels surveying thousands of consumers on future expectations in travel insurance and travel habits. The lists of the world’s safest countries and cities were created using an index that synthesizes results from multiple sources, including the U.S. State Department, the British financial magazine “The Economist,” safety-app creator GeoSure Global, Vision of Humanity, Numbeo, and “Global Finance” magazine. Past rankings also are factored in.
Source: BHTP
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