It is interesting that this question usually come from US citizens. Yes, from the country where a mass shooting seems to take place every week, and the most common cause of death is heart disease caused by never going anywhere or doing anything. I have been coming to Cabo San Lucas a long time and feel very safe. First, Cabo San Lucas is more like an island, located at the tip of Baja-some 1,000 miles from civilization. separated by hundreds of miles of desert.  The last time I heard of an anglo being killed here, a few years ago, it was an anglo man killing his anglo wife.  Before that, a few years earlier, the police killed a crazed anglo on pcp.  Before that, a few years earlier, an anglo killed another anglo in one of our hotels.

More generally. Mexico is a big country, with a population of more than 100 million. There are parts that are not safe and parts that are safe. US is big county. There are parts that are safe and there are parts that are not safe. I live in the San Francisco Bay area. I do not generally consider East Oakland, certain parts of San Francisco, Richmond or Vallejo safe. When traveling, I avoid Detroit, Cleveland and East Los Angels, among others. Houston is statistically less safe than Tijuana. The State department does not advise against traveling in all of Mexico, only certain parts Note that the State Department does not have the jurisdiction to tell what parts of the US to avoid! Otherwise, we would be getting notices to avoid our country’s capital, a not so safe place.  If you look specifically at tourist destinations in the USA and tourist destinations in Mexico, you may want to question just what “safe” really means. For example popular destination Orlando, Florida had a 2010 homicide rate of 7.5 murders / 100,000 which is significantly higher than Cancun (1.8 / 100K).  New Orleans, another popular destination in the USA, has a homicide rate ten times that of the USA as a whole.

Mexico is by far and away the country more Americans travel to than any other country. I have often seen from “baiters” the claim that “32% of all non-natural deaths of U.S. citizens outside this country occur in Mexico” (so be very scared). In fact, 32% of all American traveling out of the US, go to Mexico (source US Office of Travel and Tourism Industries). So for the statistically impaired, this is a base line of zero. There are some big differences, though. Random violence is rare in Mexico. When was the last time you heard of a Mexican walking into a school, mall or restaurant and shooting people? The violence you hear about in in Mexico is typically directed by bad guys to other bad guys in certain areas The last few decades have led to major safety improvements in the US unseen in the rest of the world. We have, for instance, had seat belt laws for almost two decades now. I suppose we could not travel anywhere, or even go out the front door. We could, after all, continue our drive in the US towards public ignorance of world affairs and culture, poor education, while simultaneously sucking all joy out of life, locked in our homes. Oh yes, we could continue to use “antidotal evidence” to support prejudice and racism. It Antidotal evidence of death and injury can be submitted for any location in the world. On the other hand and sadly, we in the US balance our general increase in safety by gun violence not seen anywhere else on earth. Tijuana, the busiest border city in the world is generally considered a dangerous city, yet has a lower per capita murder rate than many US cities, including for instance, Houston. No Mexican has ever walked into a school or mall with a gun and shot scores of people. Ever. Killings by drug dealers are of other drug dealers, not tourists and limited to localized areas of a big country. Cabo, for instance, is three times further from Tijuana than is Los Angeles, a city that has some parts that no one in their right mind would just stroll through. At present, we shoot more people here in the US than in any other country in the world. Nor are you a target of Al Qaeda in Mexico. Mexicans actually like Americans, a rare treat nowadays. Our own country went through the type of battle Mexico now faces in the 20s through the 50s. Then, as now, it is generally localized and targeted at each other. Then, it was along the Canadian border where the booze came from, which is why Chicago was such a problem. What is changed is that we have pushed the more violent aspects of our drug supply chain to the other side of the border. We could do out part to help, but the politics of drugs here in the US limits that to a great degree. The real story is always the same: You should not leave your common sense at home when traveling. The most common tourist risks are not what you might think, but instead drowning and auto accidents. Auto accidents are a world wide problem. Drowning is an increased risk for vacationers because most vacationers are near water and less risk adverse. The risk as to both can be reduced by being careful. Just because a country does not require you to wear a seatbelt, does not mean you should not wear one. Just because you are on vacation, does not mean you should drink and drive. Just because you are on vacation does not mean you should get in the ocean or a pool while drunk. The most dangerous shots involving tourists in Mexico include use of alcohol. PS:  The way you avoid heart disease is getting out and going places and doing things.