Portoviejo scores 28 out of 100 (low safety) on World Safety Map, ranked 6055 of 6168 cities worldwide. The score combines the homicide rate, nearby conflict deaths, income equality and human development from published data (UNODC, UCDP, World Bank, UNDP).

Is Portoviejo safe?

Ecuador · South America · data updated 2026-09-04

27.7Low · rank 6055 / 6,168
safer than 2% of ranked cities

Portoviejo is a city in Ecuador, home to about 229k people, and one of 6,168 cities worldwide ranked on this site from published safety data. It currently ranks 6,055 of 6,168, with a safety score of 27.7 out of 100 - in the lower part of the ranking, and the numbers below explain why.

US 2/4 Exercise increased caution UK FCDO advises against all but essential travel to parts of this country

Emergency 911 (ambulance, fire, police)

UK FCDO advises against all but essential travel to parts of this country13 named areas - see "areas to avoid" below.
Very high homicide rate74.8 homicides per 100,000 per year (city-measured), about 27× the global city median.
High income inequalityGini 45.9 puts Ecuador in the most unequal quarter of countries - the strongest structural predictor of city violence in this dataset (street crime and robbery tend to track it).

Deadliest recorded locations nearby

Jama7 deaths · 1 event
Cantón Manta7 deaths · 1 event
Manta6 deaths · 2 events

UCDP-recorded organized-violence deaths within 100 km of Portoviejo, 2022-2024, at the locations the source itself names. Conflict deaths, not street crime.

Areas the UK FCDO advises against visiting country

Coastal Region
Within 20km of the Ecuador-Colombia border
Esmeraldas
Manabí
Santa Elena
Guayas
El Oro
Los Ríos
Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas
El Ángel Ecological Reserve
Rumichaca border crossing
the town of Tulcán
the Pan-American Highway

Named in the official UK travel advice for Ecuador (in full or in part - the advisory lists exact boundaries and exceptions). These are country-level warnings and may be far from Portoviejo.

How safe is Portoviejo really?

The most direct evidence is measured in the city itself: Portoviejo recorded 75 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2024 - roughly 27 times the global city median. That matters because income inequality is the strongest structural predictor of city violence in this dataset, and Ecuador's Gini of 45.9 puts it in the most unequal quarter of countries - conditions under which street crime and robbery tend to be a real concern.

Portoviejo also carries some conflict exposure: UCDP recorded 318 deaths from organized violence within 100 km across 339 events in 2022-2024 - a factor crime statistics alone would miss. The deadliest recorded locations in that radius were Jama (7 deaths), Cantón Manta (7 deaths), Manta (6 deaths).

What the travel advisories say

The US State Department currently rates Ecuador at level 2 of 4 - "Exercise increased caution" (updated 2025-10-13). The UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to parts of this country, naming 13 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 Ecuador

Terrorism in Ecuador · Political situation · Protecting yourself and your belongings · Violent crime and armed robbery · ATM and bank customer robbery · Transport robbery · Sexual assault · Criminal kidnap · Drug-assisted robbery · Methanol poisoning · Personal ID · Illegal drugs and prison sentences · ‘Spiritual cleansing’ hallucinogens · LGBT+ travellers · +19 more

Topic headings from the official UK FCDO travel advice for Ecuador — country-level, not specific to Portoviejo. Read what each one says →

The numbers

Homicide rate: 75 /100kcity-measured, 2024 · ~27× the global city median
Conflict deaths: 318within 100 km, 2022-2024 (UCDP)
Income inequality: Gini 45.9country, 2025
Human development: HDI 0.777country, 2023
Income: $16,290/yrGNI per capita PPP · context only, not scored
Population: 229kurban centre · 4,974/km²

Country context for travelers

Road deaths: 20.1 /100kWHO, 2019 · often the biggest real travel risk
Political stability: 54/100World Bank WGI, 2024 · higher = more stable
Rule of law: 40/100World Bank WGI, 2024 · police and courts reliability
Corruption perceptions: 33/100Transparency International, 2025 · higher = cleaner
Natural-hazard risk: 5.8/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
Women, Peace & Security: 0.61Georgetown WPS Index, 2025 · 0-1, higher = better
Air quality: 18.6 µg/m³PM2.5 annual mean, 2023 · WHO guideline is 5
Safely managed drinking water: 70%of the population, 2024 · WHO/UNICEF JMP
Healthcare capacity: 2.3 doctors /1k1.3 hospital beds per 1,000
Malaria: 0 /1k at riskWHO, 2024 · listed for endemic countries only

Natural hazards in Ecuador

Earthquake: 9.5/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
Tsunami: 9.0/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
Flood: 6.5/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
Drought: 3.4/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier

Hazard types scoring under 1 out of 10 are not listed. These describe Ecuador as a whole, not Portoviejo specifically.

Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Ecuador (as of 2025).

All country-level figures shared by every city in Ecuador; none of them affect the safety score.

How the score works

Low homicide40%0

Peace25%37

Equality25%42

Development10%78

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 Portoviejo that gives 27.7/100. Full methodology, anchors and sources →

Portoviejo compared with Guayaquil

The nearest ranked city of comparable size. Green favours Portoviejo, red favours Guayaquil.
Measure	Portoviejo	Guayaquil	Difference
Safety score	27.7	27.0	+0.7 — better for Portoviejo
Homicide ratecity-measured where published, otherwise the national rate	75 /100k	66 /100k	+8.5 /100k — better for Guayaquil
Conflict deaths within 100 km	318	419	−101 — better for Portoviejo

Differences are plain arithmetic between the two stored figures — nothing is modelled. Both cities are in Ecuador, so they share every country-level figure and only the city-level ones are listed. Full report for Guayaquil →

Nearby cities

See Portoviejo on the interactive map → · Safest cities in South America → · Full travel briefings →