🇸🇻 Republic of El Salvador
Visiting: Risky
Go carefully in El Salvador. Nothing ranks highly here: there is some exposure to conflict, at 67th, and LGBT rights are limited, placed 81st. Its weak spot is freedom, which is tightly restricted, placed 146th. Women's safety is fair, ranking 86th, violent crime is moderate, at 91st, and the roads are hazardous, placed 138th.
Homicide
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.
El Salvador: 3.3
Ranked 90th in the world for the highest homicide rate.
Why this rank?
Just over three killings per 100,000 people a year is well below the world average but a shade past the three where the low tier ends.
Is it safe to visit?
Reasonable on the UN's count. Below the world average, and the rate has fallen a long way.
Road Fatalities
Road-traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year — lower is better.
El Salvador: 19.3
Ranked 43rd in the world for the deadliest roads.
Why this rank?
Nineteen deaths per 100,000 people a year is above the world average of fifteen, though well short of double it.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe on a motorbike or on foot, which is two-thirds of the deaths. In a car it's less.
Why we updated the score?
The WHO's 2021 figure was El Salvador's own count. The road-safety observatory has published 2025, with 1,238 deaths, down 5%, so we've used the newer count.
Conflict
Conflict deaths inside the country in the last twelve months, as recorded by the Uppsala conflict database, civilians killed on purpose, and any UN sanctions or court order over a war. The worst of those sets the colour. Lower is better.
El Salvador: 1.11
Ranked 67th least conflict-affected country in the world.
Why this rank?
Nothing in twenty-five years. The last conflict death the Uppsala conflict database records in El Salvador was in January 1992.
Is it safe to visit?
Safe on conflict. The crackdown is mass arrests, not fighting, and nothing armed reaches a visitor.
Freedom
Six freedoms rated 0–4 by Freedom House — protest, speech, press, religion, movement and due process. The weakest rating sets the colour, and the total places the country inside it — higher is better.
El Salvador: 3.26
Ranked 35th least free country in the world.
Why this rank?
In El Salvador due process is rated 0, meaning absent, so the courts offer no protection if anything goes wrong. Total 13 of 24.
Is it safe to visit?
Courts offer no protection. A harsh, militarised security crackdown has brought mass arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and abuses, and the executive controls the legislature and judiciary. Anyone detained has no fair process to rely on.
LGBT Rights
LGBT equality in law and daily life — higher is better.
El Salvador: 4.3
Ranked 81st most equal in the world for LGBT people.
Why this rank?
Legal with no recognition, and the government has scrubbed gender content from schools and dissolved the equality office. The law index sits at 50, public opinion at 35.
Is it safe to visit?
Reasonable, with discretion. The official message is exclusion, and violence against trans women remains among the region's worst.
Women's Safety
Women's safety — feeling safe out at night, political violence against women, a fair hearing in court, and how normal violence at home is, with the night figure setting a floor on the colour — higher is better.
El Salvador: 7.28
Ranked 86th safest country in the world for women.
Why this rank?
Eighty-five percent of women feel safe out alone at night and violence at home is low. The courts are rated near the bottom for women, and that alone is what pulls the score down.
Is it safe to visit?
El Salvador is reasonable for a woman travelling alone.