Is İskenderun safe?
Turkey · Asia · data updated 2026-09-04
İskenderun is a city in Turkey, home to about 375k people, and one of 6,168 cities worldwide ranked on this site from published safety data. It currently ranks 5,350 of 6,168, with a safety score of 48.1 out of 100, which lands it in the middle band of the ranking.
Emergency 112 (ambulance, fire, police)
- Armed conflict nearbyUCDP recorded 1,462 deaths from organized violence within 100 km in 2022-2024 (639 events). Crime figures do not capture war risk.
- UK FCDO advises against all travel to parts of this country1 named areas - see "areas to avoid" below.
Deadliest recorded locations nearby
- Talet Aqil, Talet Al-Raqib and Tal Al-Dababat near Qabtan Al-Jabal town the villages and towns of Al-Sheikh Aqeil, Anjarah, Bala, Hayr Darkal, Qubtan Al-Jabal, Al-Saloum, Jam’eat Al-Ma’ari, Al-Qasmyah, Kafr Bseen and Ajeil in western Aleppo countryside97 deaths · 1 event
- Atarib district32 deaths · 1 event
- refugee camp in Al-Jame’a neighbourhood in Idlib city23 deaths · 1 event
UCDP-recorded organized-violence deaths within 100 km of İskenderun, 2022-2024, at the locations the source itself names. Conflict deaths, not street crime.
Areas the UK FCDO advises against visiting country
- Turkey-Syria border
Named in the official UK travel advice for Turkey (in full or in part - the advisory lists exact boundaries and exceptions). These are country-level warnings and may be far from İskenderun.
How safe is İskenderun really?
No published homicide figure exists for İskenderun itself, so the national rate stands in: Turkey recorded 2.4 homicides per 100,000 people in 2024 - close to the global city median. The city itself may be safer or more dangerous than its country's average. Turkey's income inequality is middling (Gini 43.7) - in this dataset inequality predicts city violence better than any other structural factor, so this neither raises nor lowers the picture much.
Crime statistics are not the main story here: the Uppsala Conflict Data Program recorded 1,462 deaths from organized violence - war, armed conflict, militia or cartel fighting - within 100 km of İskenderun across 639 events in 2022-2024. That is active-conflict territory, and ordinary crime figures say nothing about it. The deadliest recorded locations in that radius were Talet Aqil, Talet Al-Raqib and Tal Al-Dababat near Qabtan Al-Jabal town the villages and towns of Al-Sheikh Aqeil, Anjarah, Bala, Hayr Darkal, Qubtan Al-Jabal, Al-Saloum, Jam’eat Al-Ma’ari, Al-Qasmyah, Kafr Bseen and Ajeil in western Aleppo countryside (97 deaths), Atarib district (32 deaths), refugee camp in Al-Jame’a neighbourhood in Idlib city (23 deaths).
What the travel advisories say
The US State Department currently rates Turkey at level 2 of 4 - "Exercise increased caution" (updated 2026-06-08). The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to parts of this country, naming 1 specific areas - listed above with the official advisory linked for exact boundaries and exceptions. Both advisories are country-level: no official source publishes verified neighborhood-level crime guidance for individual cities, which is why this page reports named areas only where an official source names them.
What to watch out for in Turkey
Terrorism in Turkey · Political situation · Protecting yourself and your belongings · Counterfeit banknotes · Drink and food spiking · Methanol poisoning · Sexual assault · Taxi safety · E-sims · Ramadan · Personal ID · Children and accommodation · Dress code · Personal injury claims · +19 more
Topic headings from the official UK FCDO travel advice for Turkey — country-level, not specific to İskenderun. Read what each one says →
The numbers
- Homicide rate
- 2.4 /100knational rate, 2024
- Conflict deaths
- 1,462within 100 km, 2022-2024 (UCDP)
- Income inequality
- Gini 43.7country, 2023
- Human development
- HDI 0.853country, 2023
- Income
- $44,630/yrGNI per capita PPP · context only, not scored
- Population
- 375kurban centre · 5,358/km²
Country context for travelers
- Road deaths
- 6.7 /100kWHO, 2019 · often the biggest real travel risk
- Political stability
- 49/100World Bank WGI, 2024 · higher = more stable
- Rule of law
- 42/100World Bank WGI, 2024 · police and courts reliability
- Corruption perceptions
- 31/100Transparency International, 2025 · higher = cleaner
- Natural-hazard risk
- 5.2/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Women, Peace & Security
- 0.66Georgetown WPS Index, 2025 · 0-1, higher = better
- Air quality
- 26.4 µg/m³PM2.5 annual mean, 2023 · WHO guideline is 5
- Safely managed drinking water
- no dataof the population · WHO/UNICEF JMP
- Healthcare capacity
- 2.2 doctors /1k3.1 hospital beds per 1,000
- Malaria
- 0 /1k at riskWHO, 2020 · listed for endemic countries only
Natural hazards in Turkey
- Earthquake
- 9.3/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Flood
- 6.0/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Tsunami
- 5.0/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Drought
- 2.1/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
Hazard types scoring under 1 out of 10 are not listed. These describe Turkey as a whole, not İskenderun specifically.
Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Turkey (as of 2025).
All country-level figures shared by every city in Turkey; none of them affect the safety score.
How the score works
One fixed, calibrated mix for every city: 40% homicide · 25% peace · 25% equality · 10% HDI. Homicide and conflict deaths are measured outcomes; income inequality carries the structural share because it predicts real city violence far better than national income (which is shown above but scored at zero). Each factor maps to 0-100 against fixed anchors, missing data drops out and is never estimated, and cities with data behind less than half the weighting get “no data” instead of a score. For İskenderun that gives 48.1/100. Full methodology, anchors and sources →
İskenderun compared with Hatay
| Measure | İskenderun | Hatay | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety score | 48.1 | 47.3 | +0.8 — better for İskenderun |
| Homicide ratecity-measured where published, otherwise the national rate | 2.4 /100k | 2.4 /100k | ±0.0 /100k |
| Conflict deaths within 100 km | 1,462 | 1,964 | −502 — better for İskenderun |
Differences are plain arithmetic between the two stored figures — nothing is modelled. Both cities are in Turkey, so they share every country-level figure and only the city-level ones are listed. Full report for Hatay →
Nearby cities
- Kırıkhan 47.5
- Yumurtalık 58.1
- Hatay 47.3
- Osmaniye 54.2
- Samandağ 47.7
- Idlib, Syria 54.4
- Kadirli 63.0
- Adana 64.1
See İskenderun on the interactive map → · Safest cities in Asia → · Full travel briefings →