Data for the safety grades was sourced from the UNODC, UN DESA, the World Bank, The Center For Reproductive Health, Numbeo, and Gallup.

Because data on rape and sexual assault is highly dependent on local attitudes towards reporting such crimes, the data was discarded as a meaningful benchmark. Countries like Dubai and Saudi Arabia report 0 incidences of rape, but they also penalize victims who come forward with imprisonment and fines, very likely skewing the data. They’re hardly unique, several other countries have reported issues with police forces discouraging victims from coming forward. Ergo, when South Africa reports that 137 women out of every 100,000 has been the victim of sexual assault, does this betray a really high number of sexual assaults, or a culture that allows victims to feel safe coming forward. Currently, it’s impossible to know.

Because victims of aggravated assault and armed robbery are also not 100% reliable about reporting when crimes occur, intentional murder rate was used to broadly determine violent crime rates per country. Countries that are are in the top 33% (countries ranked 71 and below) were judged to be low in violent crime, countries ranked between 72 and 144 was determined to be middling, and 145 and 218 to be high.

Estimates on intimate partner violence are determined through self-reporting in surveys, rather than through aggregate crime reports, and thus were determined to be a relatively trustworthy source.

Countries that had multiple laws that limited women’s economic opportunities weighed negatively in it’s favor for women’s legal status, additionally if they were absent specific legislation regarding sexual assault and domestic violence.