If you’re thinking of booking a holiday soon, there are a few destinations you might want to cross off the list.
That’s because the world’s most dangerous countries for 2025 have been revealed on an interactive map by International SOS.
The health and security firm’s 2025 map highlights the countries where travellers are most likely to face threats, with risk factors such as the impact of extreme weather and climate change, infectious diseases, political violence, social unrest, and mental health taken into account.
Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and the Central African Republic were all named as the most dangerous places to visit as they pose an extreme security risk.
Several countries were also found to pose a high security risk (one level down from extreme), including Myanmar (Burma), Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Venezuela, Haiti, and Honduras.
For several of these countries, including Lebanon and Myanmar, International SOS said they conducted multiple risk rating reviews, and their risk zones changed between high and extreme ratings over the last year due to conflict.
There were a few other notable changes in security risk ratings between countries that were at the lower end of the scale. New Caledonia, for instance, increased from low to medium, based on an assessment of the longer-term impact of social unrest, economic decline, and related crime.
Crime trends and increased social unrest also resulted in changes to specific countries or regions in South Africa, Mexico and Kenya. While reductions in militancy resulted in changes in risk ratings in parts of the Philippines, Thailand and Laos.
Sally Llewellyn, the global security director at International SOS, said that while some of the countries had been given higher security risk ratings for 2025, they have not decreased any this year.
‘Geopolitical tensions have been the most prominent trigger, with changes to risk ratings for locations such as Sudan and Lebanon, where the intensity and expansion of conflict now impact more population centres and have pushed the overall risk rating up,’ she said.
‘International SOS continues to support organisations operating in these locations with verified information and advice on how such risks will affect their workforce and evacuations where needed.’
Unsurprisingly, many of the countries with an extreme security risk were also considered to be very high risk when it came to medical issues and healthcare. This included Sudan, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Haiti, Yemen, and Mali.
Others in the high risk category were Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Burundi, and North Korea.
The biggest changes in medical risk were seen in Bolivia, which rose from medium to high, and Libya, which had previously been rated as extreme but decreased to high.
Dr Katherine O’Reilly, the regional medical director at International SOS, explained: ‘Changes to medical risks are based on factors including the standard and access to healthcare facilities, availability of medicines and the prevalence of infections and diseases. Using data-driven tools is critical for organisations to maintain their Duty of Care responsibilities and protect their workforce, whether their employees are travelling or working domestically.’
The impact of climate change was found to pose risks in numerous countries on the map, with many shown to have a medium to very high rating.
And when it comes to mental health, the map shows the share of the population with any mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and schizophrenia.
French Guiana and South Korea were both found to have the lowest share, between 7.5% and 10%.
At the other end of the scale in the very high category (with a 17.5-20% share) were places like Ireland, Spain, Iran, Australia, and New Zealand.
The UK ranked as ‘low’ for all other categories of risk, however, its mental health score was in the second-highest category, with a share of 15-17.5%.
Despite this, it was still deemed one of the safest countries in the world, especially from a security standpoint.
The other safest included the United States of America, France, Morocco, and Vietnam.
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