Crime in Istanbul, Turkey

Crime rates in Istanbul, Turkey

Level of crime	51.71	Moderate
Crime increasing in the past 3 years	69.82	High
Worries home broken and things stolen	41.92	Moderate
Worries being mugged or robbed	44.85	Moderate
Worries car stolen	31.95	Low
Worries things from car stolen	43.52	Moderate
Worries attacked	48.38	Moderate
Worries being insulted	50.41	Moderate
Worries being subject to a physical attack because of your skin color, ethnic origin, gender or religion	32.80	Low
Problem people using or dealing drugs	43.38	Moderate
Problem property crimes such as vandalism and theft	45.94	Moderate
Problem violent crimes such as assault and armed robbery	41.25	Moderate
Problem corruption and bribery	70.78	High

Safety in Istanbul, Turkey

Safety walking alone during daylight		70.11	High
Safety walking alone during night		40.09	Moderate

Contributors: 1130

Last update: March 2023

These data are based on perceptions of visitors of this website in the past 3 years.

If the value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if the value is 100, it means it is perceived as very high.

Moving to Istanbul? Explore:

Nearby cities:

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Crime in Zonguldak	210.49 miles
Crime in Eskisehir	220.30 miles

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Leave a comment:

14 Comments so far

Saniya on Jan 31, 2023:

I live in Istanbul for 8 years. never something scary happened with me, thanks God

Kimberly on Jan 11, 2023:

Have been to Istanbul several times, in 2011, 2016, 2021 and in 2022 last time. This city is quite safe and hospitable for anyone who comes here. I experienced no problems here

Randy on Sep 10, 2022:

I have lived in İstanbul for 4 years and have never witnessed a crime or seen the results of a crime, for instance, an area surrounded by police tape. I have walked at all times of day and night and never felt unsafe. I am sure there are some neighbourhoods where crime does occur. It's a very large city after all. But I have never seen it. I have lived in several places all over the world and İstanbul (and Turkey in general) is by far the safest - certainly safer than anywhere in the US and most of Europe. I don't know where the low ranking on this site comes from, to be honest. In all this time I've only seen one traffic accident as well, and a very small one at that, and there is an enormous amount of traffic here. It almost seems too good to be true, but that is my experience.

I've read some of the comments and, yes, sometimes taxi drivers will take advantage by taking a longer route than necessary, but that happens to some extent everywhere. The fare is always displayed in the rear view mirror and can't be adjusted by the driver. If you plan to travel to İstanbul and take taxis download one of the taxi apps, they are in English as well as Turkish and drivers won't mess around if you are using one. Estimated fare and route is displayed before you ever get in the taxi and you also have a chance to rate the driver. But in 4 years I think I have had 1 or 2 bad drivers and I taxi often. Taxis are very affordable here so even if they take a longer route it's not a lot of money. It's not nice to be taken advantage of but you won't get stuck with an enormous fare. And if you are a tourist, public transportation here is cheap, spotlessly clean, easy to use and goes everywhere, and includes buses, metro, ferries, and funicular, all for pennies. And on holidays all public transportation is free!

Mahmud on Jun 28, 2022:

Istanbul is the safest city in the world. I have visited many cities in the world but Istanbul is safe, comfortable and affordable. But beware of taxi drivers.

Anonymous on Jun 04, 2021:

City is safe, be careful with taxi DRIVERS! the soonest they realize you are tourist/foreigner and you don't speak the language, they cheat! Alost 90 to 95% of taxi drivers do

Anonymous on Jun 01, 2021:

Didn't feel unsafe when i visited the city. Just be careful with taxi drivers and the nightlife.

Cicisikuş on Mar 04, 2021:

I am living in Istanbul for 17 years. I can say living in Istanbul is gambling. If you go out of your house, you have a %50 chance to die. After the syrian immigrants, living in Turkey and especially living in Istanbul became so uncomfortable. But you can choose to live in Eskişehir. It is the safest place in Turkey now.

Arman on Dec 18, 2020:

The most dangerous city i have visited so far, majority of taxi divers are bacically robbers riding tourists, and if you survive that you are most probably robbed by either the organazied crime gangs or the international criminals, the police are wildly corrupted, it is safer to go to Syria or Afghanistan than Turkey

Joria on Nov 26, 2020:

I lived in istanbul for 6 years. I have never been a victim of any crime or even witnessed any crime.

Tr1071 on Sep 11, 2019:

If you are not from countries like Canada, Australia,New Zealand ... You can't say that Türkiye is not safe

Anon on Aug 23, 2019:

I've been living in istanbul for 2 years now in Ümraniye district, never been robbed or insulted once but I might have been scammed once or twice,people are helpful and nice but I always worry about getting my home broken into by burglars, I've never experienced it but every person I know has a story to tell about how they got(or almost got) robbed. Lock your doors, close windows in rooms you're not occupying and stay safe and aware!

Deniz on Mar 31, 2019:

Istanbul is an enormous city. It is hard to give a accurate description, especially in a limited opportunity survey. Generally, crime rates or the risk of incidents, are high in some neighborhoods outside the central areas, and low to moderate in the central areas and the recently built modern neighborhoods in the periphery areas outside the center. You should seek more detailed information elsewhere and also locals will tell you where it is safe and where no. You can use as a rule of thumb the political map of Istanbul - the more support for AKP (conservative) or HDP (kurdish), the higher is the criminality. Even more for personal crimes, especially against women. Sadly, women walking with shorts in the conservative areas, is a dangerous thing. But you will be perfectly safe in most of the city, including where the fun and business stuff to do is - particularily in the affluent areas in the center.

Mike on Mar 13, 2019:

I went to Istanbul last month. Two young men cajoled us and took us to dinner at a restaurant. There they drugged us and emptied our credit cards. The attitude of the Turkish police was disgusting. They did not let us make a complaint. They do not want a record that Turkey is dangerous. You are warned!

Walter on Mar 06, 2019:

is there lots of car thefts ? do people use devices against car theft ? can you please post some links ?

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Index
Crime Index:	47.64
Safety Index:	52.36


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