Among all the world's countries, which one has the highest reported rate of crime? Vatican City.
It makes for an interesting offbeat news story, but if you hadn't thought of the Vatican as a dangerous place, don't start worrying too much just yet.
The
statistics are skewed since there are only 27 legal residents of
Vatican City, but an estimated 18 million people visit each year.
If
just one visitor out of every 666,666 (hmm; that's an interesting
number) committed a petty crime, that would yield a rate of one reported
crime per resident, which would be enough to send your local police
chief into a tailspin.
Last year Vatican
officials reported 1,300 misdemeanors.
The vast majority were petty
thefts.
To be more precise, the vast majority were committed by
pickpockets who escape from Vatican City to the surrounding territory of
Rome before their crimes are detected.
Prosecutors filed charges in
just 171 cases.
So if you were considering a pilgrimage to Rome, don't let the crime rate deter you.
But watch your wallet.
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