Manila, Philippines

Is Manila safe for Black travelers?

Manila scores 4.4/10 on overall safety. V-Dem rates Philippines 48/100 on how equally social groups are treated in law, but institutional equality and street-level experience can differ. Here's what the data and real reviews say.

4.4/10
Overall safety
Moderate
Composite safety model
Social-group equality
48/100
V-Dem · Univ. of Gothenburg (2025)

Is Manila safe for Black travelers? (2026)

How safe is Manila overall?

Manila scores 4.4/10, in the moderate range. Signals are mixed: choosing your neighborhood and timing carefully makes a real difference.

How are social groups treated in Philippines?

V-Dem rates Philippines at 48/100 on how equally social and ethnic groups are treated in civil liberties, in the mid range. It reflects laws and institutions, not street-level experiences, which can differ by neighborhood. The reviews below add the ground-level view.

What this page does and doesn't tell you

There is no global index of how safe a city is specifically for Black travelers, and we won't invent one. This page combines the city's overall safety score, a structural equality indicator from V-Dem, and, where Black travelers have reviewed Manila, their own words. Together they give a fuller, honest picture than any single number.

Real reviews, not guesswork

Every score on this page comes from official indicators and the safety model, not from AI-generated text. Where travelers who share your profile have reviewed Manila, you'll find their words below. Last reviewed 2026.

Sources: Georgetown WPS Index, Equaldex, UNESCO, World Bank, OpenStreetMap (ODbL), Wikidata (CC0) and MapSur community reviews. How we score

Social-group equality data: Social group equality in civil liberties (v2clsocgrp), v16, V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy), University of Gothenburg, via Our World in Data. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; values normalized by MapSur. Source.

Traveler reviews of Manila

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Frequently asked questions

Is Manila safe for Black travelers?

Manila scores 4.4/10 on general safety (crime, all visitors). That number doesn't capture racism specifically, so for Black travelers it's a starting point, not the answer. The structural equality indicator and the reviews from Black travelers on this page fill that gap.

What does the equality score for Manila mean?

It's V-Dem's measure of how equally social and ethnic groups are treated in civil liberties in Philippines (48/100). It reflects laws and institutions, not day-to-day street experiences, which is why the reviews from Black travelers on this page matter alongside it.

Where does this data come from?

MapSur aggregates public indicators (Georgetown WPS Index, Equaldex, V-Dem, national statistics, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata for places) and community reviews from travelers. No AI-generated scores: every figure on this page links back to a verifiable public source.

More about Manila

Is Manila safe? (full overview)Manila for womenManila for LGBTQ+ visitorsManila for Muslim travelersAll community reviews