How safe are Canadians abroad?

Reports of Canadian tourists injured in Mexico havedominated the headlines recently.

In one case, astray bullet struck a B.C. man at a market in the resort town of Mazatlan while a New Year's Eve celebration ended in analleged gang rape.

Then there was the story of a Mexican biker gang whobeat a vacationing Montreal police officer until he was"barely recognizable."

But what are the odds of Canadians encountering violence in Mexico, one of the mostpopularwinter destinations, compared to other foreign locales?

In 2009, Canadians made more than 1.4 million trips to Mexico,a figure that includes bothsame-day and overnight travels, according to figures from the Department ofForeign Affairs and International Trade.

That year,14 Canadians were assaulted and three killed in Mexico, according to official reports.

Statistically, that equates to 1.2incidents ofdeath or violent assault forevery 100,000 Canadian travellers to Mexico that year. The five-year average (from 2005 to 2009) is higher:2.1 per 100,000.

Other common sun-seeker destinations rank slightly lower.

The Dominican Republic, for example,saw an average of 1.6 incidents of violence (assaultor death) for every 100,000 travellerswhile Cuba stands at 1.5. Jamaica, however, is more than twicethose averages, at 3.6 incidents per 100,000 travellers.

In total, Canadians took more than 52 million trips abroad in 2009. On average, about fiveCanadian travellersfor everyone million get assaulted or killed in foreign countries.

Among the safest destinations is alsothe most popular one: the United States.

The chance ofbeing assaulted or killed when visiting south of the 49th parallel is far lower than the global average three incidents for every 10 million visits.In 2009,that consisted of six assaults and seven deaths.

All statistics are based on figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Only assaults anddeaths reported to the government are included.