Safest Places in Guatemala by Homicide Rate: Every Department and the Traveller Towns Ranked (June 2026 Data)

In short: The lowest homicide rates in Guatemala are in the western highlands: Totonicapán 0.6, Quiché 1.6, Huehuetenango 1.8, Baja Verapaz 2.5, Alta Verapaz 2.6 and Sololá 3.9 per 100,000, against 16.2 nationally (twelve months to June 2026, Diálogos observatory, PNC data). Among traveller towns, the main Lake Atitlán towns show 0.0, Chichicastenango 0.6, Cobán 2.8 and Quetzaltenango 6.8. Antigua Guatemala is not in that group: 23.8, above the national rate, after 9 homicides in April-June 2026 against 1 a year earlier. Two of the low-rate departments, Huehuetenango and San Marcos, are US “Do not travel” areas, so a low rate alone is not a green light.

This page ranks places by one number, the homicide rate, because Diálogos publishes it for every municipality. It answers which places are safest by that measure, and shows where the travel advisories disagree with it. For lifestyle, cost and internet, see best places to live in Guatemala; for the national picture and the editorial safety index, see our Guatemala safety page.

What the number measures

• Source. Observatorio de la Violencia (Asociación Civil Diálogos), Informe sobre la violencia homicida en Guatemala, junio 2026. The report states it is calculated from homicides registered by the Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) and the INE’s population projections.
• Window. “Interannual” means homicides in the twelve months to June 2026, per 100,000 residents. The national rate at June 2026 was 16.2, down 6.9% on a year earlier; for women it was 4.0 per 100,000 women.
• What it does not measure. Robbery, theft, scams, sexual assault and road risk. The US, UK and Canadian advisories warn about those, and they are not in this ranking. See tourist scams in Guatemala and solo female travel.
• Small towns swing. Diálogos publishes rates, not the twelve-month counts behind them. In a small municipality a single case moves the rate a long way: Santa Cruz La Laguna shows 12.1 overall and 23.6 for women, with no homicide in June.

All 22 departments, lowest rate first

Rates: Diálogos, junio 2026 report, department tables (PDF page 8). Advisory: US State Department, Guatemala Travel Advisory issued 12 March 2026. The UK Foreign Office separately lists Huehuetenango, Chiquimula, Zacapa, Izabal, San Marcos and Petén as departments that experience high levels of crime.

The towns travellers and expats ask about

Municipal rates from the same report’s per-department tables. A municipality is bigger than its town centre: the “Flores” row covers the whole municipality of Flores, which GeoNames places Tikal in.

Source: Diálogos, junio 2026 report, municipal tables (PDF pages 11-49), read from the page images on 25 September 2026. Guatemala City is not broken down by zone in this report.

Antigua: why it is not on the “safest” list this year

Antigua’s rate of 23.8 is the same as neighbouring Pastores and above the national 16.2. Diálogos’ quarterly report for April-June 2026 lists Antigua Guatemala among the ten municipalities with the largest rise in homicides: 9 in the quarter, against 1 in April-June 2025. The department of Sacatepéquez stayed lower, at 11.9, because several of its towns registered none.

What this does and does not change: the US State Department still names Antigua among the popular destinations its own staff may visit, and Sacatepéquez is on neither the US Level 4 list nor the UK’s list of high-crime departments. The number says the twelve months to June 2026 were more violent in the Antigua municipality than the country average; it does not say where in the municipality, or whether visitors were involved. Our Antigua safety page covers the tourist core, night zones and scams.

Low rate, travel warning: Huehuetenango and San Marcos

The two departments where the numbers and the advisories disagree most:

• Huehuetenango, 1.8 per 100,000, and San Marcos, 5.8, are among the lowest homicide rates in the country.
• The US State Department puts both at Level 4: Do not travel, “due to crime and terrorism by cartels, gangs, and criminal organizations”, and does not let its government employees travel there.
• The UK Foreign Office lists both among the departments that “experience high levels of crime” and advises staying within tourist areas and travelling in daylight where possible.

A US Level 4 area is not the same as San Marcos La Laguna, the Lake Atitlán village in Sololá, which shows 0.0.

Guatemala City: no zone-level rate

Diálogos reports the city as one municipality, 39.6 per 100,000, and does not publish rates by zone. What the advisories add:

• The US lists Zone 18 and the separate municipality of Villa Nueva (27.4) as Level 4. Its employees may travel throughout the rest of the city, including at night.
• The UK says no parts of Guatemala City are free from crime, including Zone 10, singles out Zone 1 for opportunistic crime against tourists, and advises caution in Zones 6, 7 and 8 and research before staying in the outer Zones 18-25.

How to use this ranking

1. Start with the department table, then check the municipality you will actually sleep in.
2. Cross-check the US Level 4 list (Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Zone 18, Villa Nueva) before treating a low rate as permission.
3. Plan for the risks the rate does not count: the advisories’ warnings on express kidnappings, ATM tampering, fake police, robberies on tourist routes and unguided volcano hikes. See tourist scams in Guatemala and, for the lake, is Lake Atitlán safe?.

Related

• Guatemala safety: the national picture
• Best places to live in Guatemala (lifestyle ranking)
• Is Guatemala safe for solo female travellers?
• Is Guatemala safe for families?
• Is Guatemala safe for digital nomads?
• Antigua safety

Sources

• Observatorio de la Violencia, Asociación Civil Diálogos — Informe sobre la violencia homicida en Guatemala, junio 2026 (department tables p. 8; municipal tables pp. 11-49): https://dialogos.org.gt/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/InformeHomicidios-1.pdf — downloaded 2026-09-21; municipal tables read 2026-09-25.
• Diálogos — Informe trimestral: situación de la violencia homicida en el país, abril a junio de 2026 (Table 2, municipalities with the largest increase): https://dialogos.org.gt/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Balance-trimestral-violencia-abr-jun-2026.pdf — read 2026-09-21.
• US Department of State — Guatemala Travel Advisory (Level 3, issued 12 March 2026): https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories/guatemala.html — read 2026-09-24.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — Guatemala: Safety and security: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/guatemala/safety-and-security — read 2026-09-24.
• CONAP — Área de Uso Múltiple Monterrico (municipalities of the protected area): https://turismo-sigap.conap.gob.gt/rutas-turisticas/ruta-de-montanas-y-playas-boca-costa-pacifico/area-de-uso-multiple-monterrico/ — read 2026-09-24.
• GeoNames gazetteer (CC BY 4.0), Guatemala extract, for which municipality Tikal and Río Dulce fall in: https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/GT.zip — downloaded 2026-09-25.

Homicide figures are the twelve months to June 2026, the newest Diálogos report we could obtain; the July 2026 report exists but its file could not be retrieved. Information current as of 25 September 2026.