Is Tabaco safe?
Philippines · Asia · data updated 2026-09-04
Tabaco is a city in Philippines, home to about 186k people, and one of 6,168 cities worldwide ranked on this site from published safety data. It currently ranks 4,701 of 6,168, with a safety score of 57.0 out of 100, which lands it in the middle band of the ranking.
Emergency 911 (ambulance, fire, police)
- UK FCDO advises against all travel to parts of this country4 named areas - see "areas to avoid" below.
Areas the UK FCDO advises against visiting country
- Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago
- Camiguin Island
- Dinagat Island
- Siargao Island
Named in the official UK travel advice for Philippines (in full or in part - the advisory lists exact boundaries and exceptions). These are country-level warnings and may be far from Tabaco.
How safe is Tabaco really?
No published homicide figure exists for Tabaco itself, so the national rate stands in: Philippines recorded 4.3 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. Philippines's income inequality is middling (Gini 39.3) - in this dataset inequality predicts city violence better than any other structural factor, so this neither raises nor lowers the picture much.
Tabaco also carries some conflict exposure: UCDP recorded 18 deaths from organized violence within 100 km across 13 events in 2022-2024 - a factor crime statistics alone would miss.
What the travel advisories say
The US State Department currently rates Philippines at level 2 of 4 - "Exercise increased caution" (updated 2025-05-07). The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to parts of this country, naming 4 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 Philippines
Terrorism in the Philippines · Terrorist kidnapping · Methanol poisoning · Sexual assault · Criminal kidnapping · Personal ID · Public offences · Demonstrations and rallies · Illegal drugs and prison sentences · Laws on child abuse and rape · LGBT+ travellers · Water safety · Scuba diving · Road travel · +5 more
Topic headings from the official UK FCDO travel advice for Philippines — country-level, not specific to Tabaco. Read what each one says →
The numbers
- Homicide rate
- 4.3 /100knational rate, 2024
- Conflict deaths
- 18within 100 km, 2022-2024 (UCDP)
- Income inequality
- Gini 39.3country, 2023
- Human development
- HDI 0.720country, 2023
- Income
- $14,460/yrGNI per capita PPP · context only, not scored
- Population
- 186kurban centre · 2,781/km²
Country context for travelers
- Road deaths
- 12.0 /100kWHO, 2019 · often the biggest real travel risk
- Political stability
- 53/100World Bank WGI, 2024 · higher = more stable
- Rule of law
- 47/100World Bank WGI, 2024 · police and courts reliability
- Corruption perceptions
- 32/100Transparency International, 2025 · higher = cleaner
- Natural-hazard risk
- 5.3/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Women, Peace & Security
- 0.61Georgetown WPS Index, 2025 · 0-1, higher = better
- Air quality
- 22.2 µg/m³PM2.5 annual mean, 2023 · WHO guideline is 5
- Safely managed drinking water
- 49%of the population, 2024 · WHO/UNICEF JMP
- Healthcare capacity
- 0.8 doctors /1k1.0 hospital beds per 1,000
- Malaria
- 0 /1k at riskWHO, 2024 · listed for endemic countries only
Natural hazards in Philippines
- Earthquake
- 9.6/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Tsunami
- 9.4/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Cyclone
- 9.2/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Flood
- 6.7/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
- Drought
- 3.5/10EU INFORM, 2026 · higher = riskier
Hazard types scoring under 1 out of 10 are not listed. These describe Philippines as a whole, not Tabaco specifically.
Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Philippines (as of 2025).
All country-level figures shared by every city in Philippines; 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 Tabaco that gives 57.0/100. Full methodology, anchors and sources →
Tabaco compared with Legazpi
| Measure | Tabaco | Legazpi | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety score | 57.0 | 56.8 | +0.1 — better for Tabaco |
| Homicide ratecity-measured where published, otherwise the national rate | 4.3 /100k | 4.3 /100k | ±0.0 /100k |
| Conflict deaths within 100 km | 18 | 19 | −1 — better for Tabaco |
Differences are plain arithmetic between the two stored figures — nothing is modelled. Both cities are in Philippines, so they share every country-level figure and only the city-level ones are listed. Full report for Legazpi →
Nearby cities
See Tabaco on the interactive map → · Safest cities in Asia → · Full travel briefings →