Bogata, Columbia. Because everyone is coked to the eyeballs.

Hm, the "if" seems like the crux. IF Baghdad is the most dangerous city in the world, (then) where is the second. Which city would be so causally linked to Baghdad?

Kabul?

He asked me this question, and my first answer was Chernobyl, but being more serious I would have probably said Mogadishu, but there's quite a list of places I'd definitely not like to find myself.

Although, for a pub quiz, I'd say "Between first and third."

@Sacred - Apparently that's what his team Captain suggested, but I'd definitely not have said that. Indeed, given the situation over Kandahar I would suggest its not even the most dangerous city in Afghanistan?

Actually, Prypiat is pretty safe to visitors and it is situated nearer to the sarcophagus than the city of Chernobyl.

@ulytau - Yes I realised that, but couldn't think of a more suitable answer 'around' the question in the 5seconds allowed?

right now probably misrata

yeah i think mogadishu.

central america is worse than some war zones though.

so like guatemala city etc.

and i think the other part of the question should have been for who, white people? Im pretty sure a mixed race couple would find some towns in the southern (or northern) US the most dangerous

@figlesquidge:
I can understand that, I just had the urge to put those many hours spent on reading Russian webpages on this subject to some use ;)

Washington? Perhaps there is a parallel being made here, realism aside?

mexico city having a drug war? haiti having no running water? washington DC tends to kill it's inhabitants by using stress. (lower life expectancy than other american cities, iirc)

central america seems fine to me from my limited reading...

hmm, but assuming bagdhad is not the most dangerous.... is the second in iraq? the question didn't specificy that i name a city, just where it is...

"WHERE" is the second, not "WHAT".

My answer is...

"The earth!"

The wording might not be original, but is how I was passed it on. That said, they're after a city.

@Ora - I think your reading has been too limited, there are massive problems in some of the big cities of central/south America.

The most dangerous city for which statistics are available is probably Ciudad Juarez. From wikipedia:

"The city is also the site of widespread poverty and violence, including an infamous series of unsolved murders of female factory workers.[23] The violence generated by the drug war translated into more than 2,600 killings in 2008. More than 1,600 of them occurred in Juárez, three times more than the most murderous city in the United States.[24] And that number of killings increased to 2,600 in 2009.[25] In 2010, 3,075 homicides took place in Juárez. This has led to a homicide rate of 229 killings per 100,000 inhabitants.[26] In response, business groups in Juárez have called for UN intervention.[27][28]
There were 1,400 murders in Ciudad Juárez in 2008.[29] In 2010, the number of homicides in the city reached 3,075.[30] The population of Ciudad Juárez have had to change their daily routine and many try to stay home in the evening hours. Public life is limited by fear of kidnapping or random violence. In February 2009, the U.S. State Department announced in an updated travel alert that "Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008." [31] On 12 March 2009, police found "at least seven" partially buried bodies in the outskirts of the city, close to the US-Mexican border. Five severed heads were discovered in ice boxes, along with notes to rivals in the drug wars. Beheadings, attacks on police, and shootings are common in some regions.[32]
In September 2009, eighteen patients at a drug rehabilitation clinic called El Aliviane were massacred in a turf battle; the victims were lined up in a corridor and gunned down.[33] The authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims.
Plagued by corruption and the assassination of many of its officers, the government is struggling to maintain Ciudad Juárez's police force, while other officers have quit the force out of fear of being targeted.[34] In late 2008, one murder victim was found near a school hanging from a fence with a pig's mask on his face, and another one was found beheaded hanging from a bridge in one of the city's busier streets.[35]
Between February 17th–19th 2011, 53 people were killed, including four police officers. State attorney general's office spokesman Arturo Sandoval was quoted as saying, "This is the worst violence we've seen this year." The increase in violence left city morgues overwhelmed, causing trouble for storing bodies. As of February 20th, 2011, Juárez averages eight homicides per day"

And the answer they had? Detroit
Come on: seriously!? I know its dangerous, but its just not in the same league.

There's difference between random crime and issue-specific crime. For example, I hardly think any westerner visiting Mogadishu will be randomly attacked, nor do I think the average American or whatever has anything to fear from Juarez.

I live near Detroit, and its dangerousness is incredibly overstated. I would much rather wander Detroit than Baltimore, Buffalo, or portions of Chicago. To say nothing of pretty much any non-American, Canadian, or European city.

'Ciudad Juarez' - mexico, i did take that as an option... just not the specifics.

i'm interested in more central american issues, (outside of mexico) of course i always think people should abandon failed projects. This leads me to think Ciudad Juarez should give up trying to be a city.

Hand it over to the gangs and see what happens.

I think Glasgow has more murders per capita than any other city in the world; so if this is the criteria - I'd say Glasgow (Particularly if your name is Neil Lennon)

London:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10456430

I'd even say it beats Baghdad.

@manganese

the only reason London is violent is because not every rugby and soccer team can win every game, and therefore one teams fan's must drink themselves into a stupor and have a raging bar brawl!

"For example, I hardly think any westerner visiting Mogadishu will be randomly attacked"
I assume you're kidding right? You'd be quite likely to be kidnapped and held to ransom - just ask those who've tried to sail past.

Either way, as you can imagine they weren't particularly impressed! (That said, they were arguably wrong as well so its not such a big issue)

I'm actually quite pissed about this.

Every time I mention being in Detroit online, I feel like I'm expected to apologize for it or hate it or something, but damn it, it's a pretty good city. Yes it has lost population, but every northern industrial city has. Detroit has the additional difficulty population-wise of having weird laws governing its borders...while most cities have annexed other smaller areas with little issue, Michigan's constitution makes annexation really hard to do. So it is larger than it started, but there's two completely separate entities wholly within its borders (Highland Park (which is one of the places Detroit's bad rep comes from) and Hammtramck). Plus a few weird exclaves such as the one the Detroit Zoo is in.

I get crap about our abandoned skyscrapers. Make that singular. And it was occupied a few years ago, and the tenants of it wished to continue occupying it, but a real estate shyster bought it up and tried to flip it for profit pre-Super Bowl. He failed, and decided just to not pay any of the upkeep, so all the tenants had to leave...some wanted to be there so badly they stayed for a Michigan winter of no heat. The city continues to fine him for the poor upkeep, and he continues to not pay it, but as of now, they don't have the resources to seize it, and so he's still trying to sell it for a crazy profit.

It's listed at about 5 times the price per square foot that GM paid for the Renaissance Center, which was a functioning building at the time of the sale (and the largest building in Michigan, and fucking epic). It's not nearly as nice of a building (although it has its charm), and it needs serious structural repair. I think it'll be coming down soon one way or another which would be a shame.

Pyongyang?

As a westerner I don't expect i'd have much fun there...

Garrison Keillors last radio show came from Detroit..... so it must be good?

@robinhood: read the link. I was not talking about violence.

Violence and murder are not what makes a city dangerous.

@Sacred - Don't worry, as you can probably tell I think its a farce as well. He & I had a look online, and reckon they got their information from:
http://urbantitan.com/10-most-dangerous-cities-on-the-world-in-2010/
which is quite ironic since (even if you accept the cities are correct, which I wouldn't) its a year out of date:
http://urbantitan.com/10-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-in-2011/
And specifically says at the top "Well, in no particular order, here are ten of the most dangerous cities in the world that we would not dare to visit." So, they don't claim they're the worst, they say their among the worst, and they make it clear they're not in order!

+1 Sacred. I live in Dearborn. Detroit is not that bad. I don't feel threatened walking the streets. Sure there is crime and poverty, but all large cities have that. Detroit gets a bad rep because its not as prosperous. With everyone leaving lots of Detroit looks shitty but that doesn't mean its overly dangerous...

That new list is kind of crap too, blaming St. Louis for East St. Louis, which is in another state entirely. Nobody counts Gary against Chicago.

And, yeah, Tom, we discussed this before. I'm further out (Saline), but my wife commutes to the Ren Cen every day. I've gone a few times.

Well apparently tourism is not allowed in Mogadishu. A pity.