The most recent Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) report reveals that Canada is the World’s Safest Travel Country in 2024. The report was issued at the end of 2023, showing Canada’s top position as the safest country for travelers globally in 2023-2024. Read on to understand what the BHTP is, its process of assessing countries’ safety, and additional details.

Canada is World’s Safest Travel Country in 2024-Reveals BHTP

BHTP stands for Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. It assesses how safe a country is for travelers depending on a variety of factors.

According to the BHTP, the overall Ranking of the countries is determined on the basis of an average of all measures from the State of Travel Insurance research of BHTP. As a basis of rankings, it considers six sub-category scores. 

BHTP further claims that it compares its own polled ratings with other notable information and indices. This includes the State Department’s own travel safety ratings and the Global Peace Index. In addition, the report also considers the averages of the GeoSure Global scores of each country’s central cities to calculate the score. 

Overall, the BHTP report considers several factors to generate an average score for each country that indicates their safety as a whole.

You can navigate its official website to find the complete 2023-2024 BHTP report. In addition, you can get details on the changes in the BHTP rankings over the years, methods, and more.

Canada’s Ranking Jumped Five Spots Above From the Last Year

Canada has risen from sixth place in last year’s BHTP ranking to first place this year and thus becomes the World’s Safest Travel Country for visitors in 2024.

As per the report, there are various reasons contributing to the top ranking of Canada. The key ones are low population density and cold weather, making it a safe place to travel. 

Moreover, in the latest BHTP report, the top 15 countries have a devoted section. Each section further has a heading titled “What you need to watch out for.”

Under this section, for Canada, the report recognized wildfires as a matter of concern, especially for travelers. It emphasized that wildfires have a significant impact on air quality. Thus, people with respiratory conditions have a more difficult time traveling to Canada.

Nevertheless, under a dedicated section, the Gap Year Travel Store quote summarises Canada’s travel safety like this: “As traveling destinations go, it really doesn’t get much safer than Canada … Violent crime is comparatively low, and there is a low incidence of gun-related crime.”

Understanding Canada’s Ranking by Sub-Category in BHTP’s Report

In BHTP’s report, the following five factors are used to calculate the overall ranking for the safest countries to travel across the world.

These include:

  • Transportation safety
  • Safety from terrorism
  • Safety from violent crime
  • Health measures (including disease)
  • Safety for specific groups, including women, travelers of colour, and LGBTQ+ travelers

It’s noteworthy that Canada secured the top position in all these sub-categories featured in this year’s ranking. 

The report has also ranked the top ten countries as per each sub-category you can check on its official site.  

As per the BHTP report, transportation safety considers countries that either have well-developed transportation systems and roads, except for Iceland or have little need to travel far.  

Canada’s BHTP Rankings Based on Age and Income

According to the BHTP, those who participated in the survey for 2023-2024 of these rankings had vastly diverse opinions of the safest countries globally based on their age and income. 

However, as per these sub-categories, in the majority of instances, Canada ranked among the top four World’s Safest Travel Countries in 2024.

Compared to the overall ranking of Canada, the following is how its place would vary in BHTP’s rankings if it’s ranked based on the opinions of specific groups of respondents.

Millennials

As per Millennials who polled BHTP’s survey, Canada placed fourth in overall travel safety. It followed Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (UK).

Gen Z

As per Gen Z members who polled BHTP’s survey, Canada stayed in first position in overall travel safety.

Respondents with a family income of more than $200,000

As per the Respondents under the family income category, Canada is placed in second position in travel safety. Portugal attained the first position.

Respondents spending over $25,000 yearly on travel.

 As per the respondents under the travel spending category who polled the BHTP survey, Canada is sixth in overall travel safety. It followed the Netherlands, Hungary, the UK, the Bahamas, and Portugal.

Respondents under the “Mature” category

There is no specific age limit that is eligible to consider a respondent as a Mature. As per the BHTP survey, respondents under this category ranked Canada ninth among the safest travel countries.

 Under this category, Canada comes after the following countries:

  • Iceland
  • South Korea
  • Sweden
  • Japan
  • Denmark
  • Norway
  • New Zealand
  • Ireland

Parents

As per parents who responded to BHTP’s polls, Canada ranked first in overall travel safety.

LGBTQ+ travelers

Unlike others, the LGBTQ+ community is the only category that responded to the BHTP survey and did not include Canada, even in the top ten safest countries for travel across the world. This means Canada wasn’t among the top ten countries as per the LGBTQ+ community.