SPAIN is among the 10 countries in the world with the lowest number of murders, reinforcing its reputation as one of the safest nations on the planet and where violent crime is very rare.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)'s most recent report covers crime rates for the year 2012, when 698 people were murdered, a rate of 0.8 per 100,000 inhabitants.
This is a long way below the European average of 3.8 per 100,000, and half that of the UK, which is 1.5 per 100,000 residents.
Spain is level pegging with Germany and Sweden, and slightly better than Italy where nine people per million (0.9 per 100,000 inhabitants) were murdered in 2012.
Spain was only beaten by Slovenia and San Marino (seven per million inhabitants), Singapore, Iceland and Norway (six per million), Japan (four per million) and Luxembourg, the country with the fewest murders in the world at two per million residents).
France and Greece were the only countries which did not supply data in time.
More men in Spain tend to be victims of homicide - 11 per million - than women, five per million.
Stabbing or bludgeoning was the main cause of death, accounting for 47% of cases, with a quarter of the total being caused by firearms.
Worldwide, murder is the third-most common cause of death in men aged 15 to 44, with 475,000 people of both sexes assassinated every year around the globe.
Women and children, internationally, are far more likely to suffer violence, but it is less often fatal than with men who are more likely to be murdered.
The WHO report also shows that one in four children on Earth have suffered physical abuse at some point, and one in five have been sexually assaulted.
On an international level, one in three women has been physically or sexually assaulted by her current or former partner or spouse at least once in her life.
Fatal violence has diminished in the last decade by 16% around the world, says the WHO's director-general Margaret Chan, but she warns that even non-lethal violence can seriously affect the victim for the rest of his or her life.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com