Toronto, Ontario (CTV Network) -- Canada has been deemed the eighth safest country for women to travel in by themselves this summer, according to a travel study ranking 34 countries.
The United States was ranked near the bottom at 32 (below Turkey, 30 and Chile, 31). Bounce, a luggage storage company, looked at data on various aspects of gender equality and safety for women, including domestic violence laws, homicide rates and how safe women feel walking at night in their country, in order to create a ranked list, published this month.According to the list, the safest country for women to travel solo is Ireland, with Austria, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland rounding out the top five.“The Emerald Isle scores particularly highly for the laws it has in place to protect women from violence, as well as when it comes to local attitudes toward violence against women,” the study stated of Ireland’s top rank.Spain came in sixth, followed by Portugal, Canada, the Netherlands and Poland, to round out the top 10.Canada scored a 6.67 out of ten for its overall safety for women traveling alone, compared to Ireland’s 7.88.Colombia was deemed the least safe for women to travel in alone out of the 34 countries included.
But the United States barely beat it, coming in at 32 on the list right above Costa Rica.The assessment was based on seven different measurements, including the percentage of women in that country who had reported experiencing violence, the number of female homicide victims per 100,000 women, the percentage of women who reported feeling safe walking alone at night, the percentage of women in that country who agree that a husband might be justified in being violent against his wife, and how strong the laws regarding.