So you are visiting or taking up residence in Cabo. Inevitably, you will hear some version of “it is dangerous there” or “aren’t you worried about the violence”

Shedding some light:

The US State Department has issued a travel warning of “Reconsider Travel To” for “Baja California.” This actually refers to the State of Baja California, not Baja California. There are two states in Baja California, one of which is “Baja California” and the other is “Baja California Sur.’ The driving distance from point to point for the two states is about 1,000 miles, or about 1,000 miles driving from Tijuana to Cabo. It is interesting to note how the US State Department issues such warnings. If a city in a State is considered dangerous, the warning is issued for the whole state. So if US State Department were issuing such warnings within the US (it does not) then if, for instance, Houston is considered dangerous (and it is) the warning would be issued for the entire State of Texas. If US State Department issued the same warnings within the US it issues for travel outside of the US, most of the country would be subject to warnings. By the way, other countries issue travel warnings to its citizens about visits to the US due to violence. Between 64 high-income countries and territories, the United States stands out for its high levels of gun violence. The US ranks eighth out of 64 for homicides by firearm. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, two US territories, rank first and third on that list.

Mexico does have a higher murder per capa rate than the US. On the other hand, Mexico’s murder per capa is about the same as Las Vegas.

The Cabo area per capa murder rate is lower than most of the US, 1.8 compared to the US of 6.9 overall, or Canada 2.06 overall.

The true thing to know is that violent crime, world wide, rarely involves tourists.

The murder rate for tourists Mexico is .26 Than is much safer than in the US, just about anywhere – anytime.

The Cabo area gets over 3 million tourists annually. When was the last time you heard of a US or Canadian tourist being murdered by in Cabo by a Mexican. (Yes US citizens do kill each other here once in a while. We even got blamed when a man pushed his wife off a cruse ship near our coast a few years back).