foreign victim records since 2020
Provisional editorial databaseSEE THE LIST ↓PHILIPPINES FOREIGN FATALITY LIST · PROVISIONAL DATABASE
Is it dangerous in the Philippines?
We examine documented killings of foreign nationals since 2020 and compare estimated rates with the Filipino population.
We have compiled cases found in public sources. Rather than counting headlines, we aim to estimate proportional risk using homicides per 100,000 person-years.
Foreign exposure includes residents and the equivalent time tourists actually spend in the Philippines. These are estimates, not an individual probability or a comprehensive official register.
List reviewed through 27 September 2026. Totals and breakdowns are calculated from the records.
OTHER CRIMES01 · FOREIGN NATIONALS AND FILIPINOS
Are more people murdered among foreign nationals or Filipinos?
We compare estimated rates per 100,000 person-years, not absolute victim counts.FFL victims per 100,000 foreign person-years
Weighted average · 2020–2025approximate local population rate /100,000
PNP incidents minus FFL victims · 2020–2025difference between the modelled rates
Not equivalent to individual risk78 records in the list, not a comprehensive census. Individual source links are missing for 61 records. Rates are calculated from the saved cases and exposure inputs. New years or periods without compatible inputs display “Pending”. PNP counts incidents, whereas FFL counts victims: the local comparison is approximate, not an official breakdown by citizenship.
03 · TRENDS 2020–2026
The difference changes every year.
Foreign nationals Filipinosrate / 100,000 person-years
PARTIAL COVERAGELast review: 27 September 2026. Incomplete years remain labelled as such when the calendar changes.
04 · VISUAL REFERENCE
If this risk were a country, which would it resemble?
COMPARISON OVER TIME
The Philippines compared with four countries
The green line is the FFL estimate for foreign nationals in the Philippines. The others are national rates provided only as context: they do not measure foreign nationals’ risk in those countries. Thailand is not plotted because the police counts consulted are not comparable with this intentional homicide series.
Recent data and sources: Argentina (SNIC, 2024–2025); Bolivia (OAS, 2024); United States (FBI, 2024) and 2025; Lithuania (UNSDG, 2024) and preliminary calculation for 2025. Comparisons use the stated sources and years; methodologies differ and do not form a ranking. *FFL 2026 is partial.
The FFL rate is VivirEnFilipinas.com’s own estimate, based on identified foreign homicide victims and an estimate of the exposed foreign population. There is no published official rate specifically for foreign nationals in the Philippines. International comparisons use national intentional homicide rates published by UNODC/World Bank solely as a reference for scale. Each comparison shows the international data year. They are not an overall safety ranking.
Methodology and source
Country series describe intentional homicides in the general population; FFL estimates foreign homicides relative to the exposed foreign population. The denominators differ, so the comparison only illustrates scale. Data are not extended beyond the last published year.
UNODC / World Bank – Intentional homicides per 100,000 people ↗05 · PROFILE AND CONTEXT
Not all foreign nationals have the same risk profile.
78 cases loadedThese filters change the profile and context charts. They do not recalculate rates without the corresponding population denominator.
Profile
Motive or context
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
One recurring profile: moneylenders
Documented cases include foreign nationals—particularly Indian and other South Asian citizens—engaged in moneylending and in-person debt collection. Exposure to cash and debt appears relevant, rather than nationality itself.
Moneylending = a recurring risk-related activity in the FFLRELATED CASES
POGO and organised crime: contexts to distinguish
The group of nine Pampanga victims is counted in 2024 and retains the editorial POGO label from the supplied list.
Police did not confirm that every case was connected with POGO. The label allows that hypothesis to be explored; it does not establish each victim’s activity.06 · GEOGRAPHY
Where do they occur?
By region
78 records · calculated automaticallyExplore the regions
Interactive map · 18 regionsLoading map…
Cases in the list No cases in the list
Manila and the rest of the Philippines
78 records by locationTwo-group summary: Manila (NCR) and the rest of the Philippines.
Show all provinces and areas
“Rest of the Philippines” groups the other locations in the list; imprecise areas retain their recorded names.
Manila vs the rest of the Philippines
Annual comparison · estimated rate per 100,000 person-yearsIllustrative scenario: 39.8% of foreign residents in NCR and 2 days of each trip in Manila. These are not official regional rates; cases with an unknown region are not allocated to provinces.
ASEAN · GENERAL DATA AND COVERAGE
What do we know and what is missing?
The Philippines is split into Manila · NCR and the rest of the country. For other countries, the map shows the latest general intentional homicide rate available in the international series and the provisional status of research into foreign victim data.FFL list · partialGeneral rate availableNo value in the consulted seriesRed: foreign victim figures difficult to reconcile, or general rate >4Black: active armed conflict
The map rate concerns the general population, not foreign nationals. Red marks Malaysia and Thailand because their foreign victim data are difficult to compare, and Timor-Leste because its latest available intentional homicide rate exceeds 4 per 100,000 people. Black identifies active armed conflict in Myanmar. None of these colours is a tourist safety scale. UNODC homicide victim data include national/foreign citizenship, with coverage varying by country and year. Reviewed: 24 September 2026. The Philippine list is also partial.
World Bank / UNODC · CC BY 4.0 ↗ · Natural Earth geometry ↗ · 11 ASEAN member countries ↗
BEFORE YOU TRAVEL
Travelling to the Philippines?
Homicides are only a small part of travel risk. Medical emergencies, accidents or repatriation are usually much more relevant to a tourist.SEE TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR THE PHILIPPINES ↗Affiliate link: I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
07 · DOCUMENTED CASES
Philippines Foreign Fatality List
78 cases compiled since 2020. Check the sources for each record; uncertainties and information limits are clearly indicated.Showing 0 cases
| Date | Name | Nationality | Location | Profile | Motive / context | Source |
|---|
08 · LIST BREAKDOWN
Victims by country and continent
Victims grouped by the nationality recorded in each case. Each person is counted once.Counts use the complete list, regardless of the filters above. Unconfirmed nationalities are grouped separately. The dual-nationality case contributes 0.5 to China and 0.5 to the United States, so the total remains 78. Türkiye is included in Asia.
09 · RECORDED CRIME
Other crimes in the Philippines.
Trends from 2012 to 2025 and the Philippines’ position in international recorded-crime rankings. Each comparison states its year and the countries with data.Show charts and comparisons
Loading charts…
Methodology and sources
Historical series show recorded cases in the Philippines for the entire population. Police records do not necessarily equal actual incidence: reporting, laws and recording methods can change across years and countries.
International references use rates per 100,000 people. The stated year or period belongs to the international comparison, not the latest year in the Philippine chart. Rounded rates can produce ties; the five-country selection is not an overall safety ranking.
Theft — reviewed 8 October 2026: 2018 is used, the latest year with Philippine data in the consulted UNODC economic crime file. The position is calculated among the 92 jurisdictions with published rates for that same year. The chart’s national PSA/PNP series and the international UNODC series have different counts and are kept separate.
Robbery, rape and general kidnapping rankings: These use 2024 entries from the UNODC violent offences file and World Bank 2024 population (SP.POP.TOTL). Rates are calculated here as records ÷ population × 100,000, not rates published by UNODC. Jurisdictions lacking an equivalent population are excluded; the entire UK population is not used for Scotland or Northern Ireland. Each ranking uses the same stated year, not 2025.
Position: Unrounded rates are sorted from lowest to highest. Position is 1 plus the number of jurisdictions with a lower rate; exact ties share a position. The two rows immediately before and after the Philippines are shown, with the full set expandable. Missing data are not counted as zero. This is a position within the available dataset, not an exhaustive world ranking or a safety ranking.
International coverage: The UNODC file repeats Philippine robbery, rape and general kidnapping counts in its 2023 and 2024 entries. The ranking uses entries labelled 2024; this does not imply an independent PNP series update. Its numerators are not mixed with the chart’s national counts.
Robbery and theft: Robbery involves violence or threats; theft refers to taking property without that violence. They are not added together or treated as the same category.
Rape: Underreporting, legal definitions, access to justice and recording methods particularly affect this comparison. The national series and international “Reported rape” indicator can differ in scope. A lower recorded rate does not prove lower actual prevalence.
Kidnapping: The supplied 2012–2023 series is retained with a dashed line and varying coverage, not fully checked year by year. PNP-AKG/PNA-confirmed KFR values for 2024–2025 form a separate solid segment. The international ranking uses general kidnapping, not exclusively KFR or kidnappings of foreign nationals.
How we calculate risk +
- Counts come from the local list, with one row per victim. It is not a comprehensive official register.
- Tourist exposure = foreign arrivals × average stay ÷ 365. Residents are a fixed assumption of 197,000 per complete year, not an official annual figure.
- Foreign rate = FFL victims ÷ foreign exposure × 100,000.
- For partial years, residents are prorated by covered days ÷ 365. The current list cut-off is 27 September 2026. For 2026, the assumption of 4.11 million January–August arrivals is retained and its daily pace extrapolated to the cut-off: arrivals × covered days ÷ 243. This is not a new official tourist figure. The date does not advance automatically, and extending the cut-off does not make the partial list comprehensive.
- Approximate local rate = (PNP murder + homicide − FFL victims) ÷ population × 100,000. Subtracting victims from incidents is a model limitation: this is not an official rate by citizenship.
- The average first sums victims and exposure across comparable complete years. It does not average annual rates. Intermediate results are not rounded.
- The calendar adds new years when the page opens, but their rates remain pending until that period’s inputs are entered. Arrivals are not invented and an unreviewed list is not treated as complete.
Data, assumptions and sources +
Figures attributed to official sources
Inputs supplied by Bacefi: tourism and stays 2020–2024, PSA Statistical Yearbook table 8.5; crime 2020–2023, PNP/CIRAS and table 17.2. PSA Yearbook ↗. Incidents for 2024–2025 are published by PNA / PNP ↗. PSA censuses: 2020 and 2024. Attribution does not mean every value has been individually cross-checked.
Model assumptions
197,000 residents; 2025 and 2026 stays equal to 2024 (11.03 days); estimated intercensal population growth of 0.8%; 2 tourist days and 39.8% of residents in NCR. BI 2025 arrivals and the DOT January–August 2026 figure are retained as supplied, pending individual sourcing and comparability checks. The 2026 extrapolation is a model calculation, not an official forecast.
Our own data
FFL case list, victim counts, editorial classification and linked sources. Unconfirmed POGO connections are marked in notes.
| Year | Arrivals | Stay | Resident exposure | Tourist exposure | FFL | Murder + homicide | Population |
|---|
Limitations +
- Cases may be missing and some sources do not publish names or nationality.
- Populations and units are not identical: PNP incidents, FFL victims and the total Philippine population.
- A victim may fit several categories; the chart uses one primary category to avoid double counting. A motive under investigation is not presented as proven.
- Periods without a confirmed cut-off remain partial when the year changes.
- A discovery date is not treated as a death date. Uncertain locations are not assigned to a province by assumption.
- Profile filters do not recalculate rates without a valid specific denominator.
This database is for information and statistical purposes. It does not replace official statistics or claim that every homicide of a foreign national in the Philippines has been identified.
If you spot a missing case or an error, we want to correct it.REPORT A CASE OR CORRECTION →