The index that goes beyond government advisories
Most of us have scrolled through a government travel advisory at some point — those colour-coded warnings that seem to flag entire continents in amber while somehow leaving out the chaotic alleyways we navigated just fine last winter. A new risk index from US travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth tries something different.
Ranking 113 countries on a 10-point scale, the study weighed factors including access to reliable medical care, safety and peace indices, local safety sentiment, and internet connectivity. The result is a layered picture of risk — one that distinguishes between a country where crime is the problem, a country where healthcare is the problem, and a country where patchy mobile internet quietly compounds both. It was built specifically with solo travellers in mind, since they lack the built-in support network that comes with group travel.
Venezuela topped the riskiest list with a score of 9.74, partly because fewer than 10 per cent of residents surveyed said they felt safe walking alone at night. Peru followed at 8.87, where slow mobile internet in busy tourist areas added to the safety picture. Gabon ranked third at 8.51 — not because of crime, but because of healthcare: just two hospital beds per 1,000 people, the lowest in the study. South American countries made up half of the top 10 riskiest destinations overall.
At the other end, San Marino scored a remarkably low 0.78, with nearly 90 per cent of residents saying they feel safe walking alone after dark. Andorra and Singapore followed. European nations dominated the safest end of the list.
The middle band most of us are actually booking
Here is where the index gets interesting. None of Squaremouth's own ten most-booked destinations landed at either extreme. Italy, France, the UK, Canada and the US all sat in a moderate-risk band. Mexico, ranked 16th riskiest in the index, was nonetheless the company's single most-booked international destination — suggesting that risk score and travel popularity have very little to do with each other in practice.
This matters because it reframes how we think about destination research. A place being popular does not make it low-risk. A place carrying a risk flag does not mean most travellers are having unsafe experiences there. The index is less a blacklist and more a prompt to ask the right questions before you go.
Among travellers already considering higher-risk destinations, crime was the top concern (cited by 40 per cent), followed by political unrest at 37.2 per cent, and health-related risks at 12.2 per cent.
Why this matters for a solo travel audience in India
India does not appear on either extreme of this index, but the study's logic applies directly to how Indian solo travellers — one of the fastest-growing segments in outbound tourism — should approach trip planning.
First, on insurance: the report flags a gap that many travellers do not realise exists. Standard travel policies typically exclude acts of war, military action, or government-ordered airspace closures. This is not a hypothetical — it recently affected travellers stuck in Venezuela. Only optional add-ons like Cancel For Any Reason or Interruption For Any Reason cover offer partial protection. If you are travelling solo to a destination with any political volatility, it is worth asking your insurer specifically about these clauses rather than assuming you are covered.
Second, the healthcare dimension is underappreciated. Indian travellers heading to parts of Africa or South America may be focused on crime statistics while overlooking how thin the local medical infrastructure actually is. Gabon's case — high risk driven almost entirely by hospital-bed scarcity rather than violence — is a useful reminder that an injury or sudden illness far from a functional hospital is its own category of emergency.
Finally, connectivity. The index counted mobile internet reliability as a safety factor, and rightly so. For solo travellers navigating unfamiliar cities, a working data connection is not just a convenience — it is a safety net. Checking local SIM availability or international roaming reliability before you land is the kind of quiet preparation that does not make for a glamorous Instagram story but absolutely earns its place in your pre-trip checklist.