Argentina's homicide rate is at a record low. Theft is the everyday risk in the big cities. What the latest figures say, and what they do not.
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Esta guía está escrita en inglés hasta que su versión en castellano tenga la misma revisión legal. A continuación, el texto en inglés.
In 2025 Argentina recorded its lowest homicide rate since national crime statistics began. For a newcomer in a big city, the everyday risk is theft. In Buenos Aires, an expat report names phone theft as the main concern.
That is the short version. The longer one depends on where you live, and the data we found does not go down to the neighbourhood.
These figures come from the national crime statistics system for 2025, published by the Ministry of Security in June 2026 and reported by El Observador. Rates are per 100,000 people.
Homicide is at a record low nationally. Theft is what to plan around.
These are figures for whole provinces, or for the city of Buenos Aires as a whole. We found no published rates for individual neighbourhoods, or for cities such as Mendoza, Salta, Bariloche or Mar del Plata.
Homicide rates in some provinces were well above the national figure in 2025.
The coverage we read is not consistent about which province ranks first, so we do not rank them.
Rosario, in Santa Fe province, went through a severe wave of violence a few years ago, and anti-narcotics forces were sent in. The city recorded 288 homicides in 2022.
Since then, the numbers have fallen sharply. Figures from Santa Fe's public security observatory for January to June 2026:
The improvement is large. We found no neighbourhood-level data, so we cannot say how conditions vary across the city. If you are considering Rosario, ask people who live there about the specific areas you are looking at.
An expat report from 2026 describes Buenos Aires as fairly safe, with a good police presence. The main concern it names: Street phone theft.
Its advice is simple: do not walk along the street staring at your phone.
For late journeys, the same report notes that ride-hailing apps work around the clock: Uber, Cabify and DiDi, available at all hours.
Ask locally before you choose where to live, and look at the date on any figure you read.
Safety is one part of choosing where to live. Read how Argentine paperwork really works for the other thing newcomers find hardest. If you have not chosen a residence route yet, the Route Finder shows the routes you may fit.
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