Why Is Mérida, Mexico So Safe? My Perspective After Nearly 7 Years

When I first wrote this article back in 2021, Mérida was being called the second safest city in North America, second only to Quebec, Canada.

And yes, at the time, that was true.

Now wait a minute.

Are you telling me Mérida, Mexico was safer than every major city in the good ole U.S. of A.?

Yep.

I’ll give you a minute to let that marinate.

Now, does that mean crime didn’t happen here?

Of course not.

Crime happens everywhere.

But what I was trying to explain back then—and what I still believe almost seven years later—is that Mérida just feels different.

I’m from Atlanta.

And if you’ve ever watched the 6 o’clock news in Atlanta, you already know what I mean. It’s about 25 minutes of somebody getting robbed, shot, carjacked, chased down the highway, and then they give you three minutes of weather.

That has never been my day-to-day experience here in Mérida.

And nearly seven years later, my family and I still feel safe here.

Safe Does Not Mean Crime-Free

I think this is where people sometimes get confused.

When you say somewhere is safe, people hear:

Nothing bad ever happens there.

That’s not what I’m saying.

I know someone who had her purse stolen in Centro.

I know someone who had their car vandalized by an angry neighbor.

I’ve heard plenty of stories about people getting scammed, paying someone in advance for something that never happened, or somebody taking advantage of an opportunity because something wasn’t properly secured.

And I’ve had my own security situation.

So no, Mérida is not some magical place where crime doesn’t exist.

But in my experience, the type of crime you worry about here has been very different from what I was used to worrying about back in Atlanta.

The Time Somebody Was Inside My Property

A few years ago, I had an experience that really tested everything I had been saying about safety here.

One morning, I was getting ready to go for a walk.

My daughter was inside watching television and eating breakfast.

I walked toward the front door, opened it and—

There was a man standing inside my inner security wall.

Now understand something.

This wasn’t somebody standing out on the sidewalk.

This dude was inside my property.

So immediately I’m like:

What the heck are you doing in here?

He tells me he’s there to wash my car.

But he doesn’t have a bucket.

He doesn’t have a rag.

He doesn’t have a hose.

He doesn’t have anything you would actually use to wash a car.

So now I know something isn’t right.

I tell him to get out.

Then I go back inside and pull up my security cameras.

That’s when things got even more interesting.

This man had been walking around my property.

He rang the doorbell.

He tried another door to see if it was open.

He looked through the windows of the car.

He picked up something sitting on a ledge like he was checking underneath it for a key.

He was looking for an opportunity.

And the part that really got me was my daughter was inside the house while all of this was happening.

Now I’m hot.

“I Have a Suspicious Hunger”

So I decide to call the police.

Here’s where the story gets funny now—but it was not funny at the time.

My Spanish was much worse back then.

And let me tell you something: whatever Spanish you think you know goes out the window when your adrenaline is pumping.

I’m on the phone trying to tell this lady:

There is a suspicious man at my house, and I need the police.

What I actually told her was basically:

I have a suspicious hunger, and I need the police.

There is a big difference between hombre and hambre.

One is a man.

The other one means you need lunch.

So this lady is probably on the phone thinking:

What in the Silence of the Lambs is going on over there?

Eventually they transferred me to somebody who spoke English.

I explained what happened and went back to my house.

Within a few minutes, police cars started coming from different directions.

I think there were about five of them.

I showed the first officer the security-camera footage.

He recorded it on his phone, sent it out to the other officers and they took off looking for the guy.

Then a tourist police officer showed up who spoke English.

Not long after that, they came back and showed me a picture.

They had already found him a few streets away.

That whole experience happened pretty quickly.

And here’s the interesting thing:

That situation did not make me feel less safe in Mérida.

In some ways, it reinforced what I already believed about why Mérida feels safe.

The Police Presence Here Is Real

One of the things I noticed when we first moved here was how visible the police are.

You see them.

They patrol neighborhoods.

You see police vehicles sitting in certain areas.

You see them riding through neighborhoods regularly.

The officer who responded to my incident told me that my neighborhood was part of his normal patrol.

I had seen the guy before while I was out walking.

And he basically told me that if I was ever going to be gone from the house for an extended period of time, let him know and he could keep an eye on the property.

That was different for me.

Now, I’m not saying everything is perfect.

I’m telling you my experience.

And my experience with the police here has been positive.

If Mérida Is So Safe, Why Does Everybody Have Walls?

I hear this one all the time.

If Mérida is so safe, why do houses have huge walls?

Why are there cameras?

Why are there bars on the windows?

Why do some houses have electric fencing?

Because safe does not mean stupid.

Come on now.

You can live in a safe place and still lock your doors.

You can live in a safe place and still have cameras.

You can live in a safe place and still not leave your garage door open all night.

Ask me how I learned that last one.

I still have cameras.

I still lock my doors.

I still pay attention to what is going on around me.

I brought some of those habits from Atlanta and I’m not giving them up just because I moved to Mérida.

Safety Is Something You Can Feel

Here’s the thing.

Safety isn’t just a number somebody puts in a report.

You can actually feel it in the way you live.

I remember sitting in a coffee shop one day and watching a guy get up from his table.

He had two cell phones and his wallet sitting there.

The man got up and just walked away from the table.

Left all of it sitting there.

In Atlanta?

Man, please.

I use ATMs at times when I would have thought twice about doing that back home.

My wife runs early in the morning.

Sometimes she runs later in the day.

Our daughter has grown up here.

We go to parks.

Families are outside.

Kids are playing.

You see people living their lives without constantly looking over their shoulder.

Those little things tell me more about safety than a ranking ever could.

Has Mérida Changed?

Absolutely.

Mérida is not the same city we moved to in 2019.

There are more people.

More development.

More traffic.

More neighborhoods.

More money flowing into the city.

More people coming from other parts of Mexico and from other countries.

And anytime a place grows, things are going to change.

I’ve said in more recent videos that I do think the perception of safety has changed some.

People talk about crime more.

There are more people here.

And when more people come into a city, you’re going to have more opportunities for things to happen.

But here’s what has not changed for me:

My family and I still feel safe.

I still think you should lock your doors.

I still think you should use common sense.

I still think crimes of opportunity are something you need to pay attention to.

I still believe you should know your neighborhood.

And I definitely think you should know who to call before you have an emergency.

Do not wait until you’re standing outside full of adrenaline speaking Spanglish to figure that out.

Trust me.

Mexico Is Not One Place

This is another thing that bothers me.

Something happens somewhere in Mexico and the headline becomes:

MEXICO IS DANGEROUS.

Mexico is a country of around 130 million people.

It’s huge.

You can have something happening in one part of the country that has absolutely nothing to do with my life here in Mérida.

Earlier this year, there were major headlines about violence happening in different parts of Mexico.

You know what was happening here?

I got up.

Took my daughter to school.

Went to get coffee.

Worked.

Went home.

Normal Tuesday.

That doesn’t mean problems elsewhere in Mexico aren’t real.

They absolutely are.

It just means Mexico is not one place.

If something happens in Chicago, nobody says:

America is unsafe. Everybody leave.

But somehow when something happens in Mexico, that logic goes out the window.

You have to look at the place you are actually considering living.

So After Nearly Seven Years, Do I Still Feel Safe in Mérida?

Yes.

Very much so.

When I wrote this article in 2021, the “second safest city in North America” ranking was a big part of the conversation.

Today, I honestly don’t need the ranking.

I’ve lived here.

I’ve raised my daughter here.

I’ve lived in several different neighborhoods.

I’ve experienced an actual security incident.

I’ve had to call the police.

I’ve watched the city grow.

I’ve watched things change.

And after almost seven years, my family and I still feel safe living in Mérida, Mexico.

Would I tell you that Mérida is perfect?

No.

Would I tell you nothing bad will ever happen here?

Absolutely not.

But if you ask me whether I feel safer living here than I did in many large cities in the United States?

Yep.

And that answer hasn’t changed.

Thinking Seriously About Moving to Mérida?

The bigger question for you is whether Mérida—or Mexico in general—actually fits the life you're trying to build.

Safety is only one part of that decision.

Housing matters. Money matters. Residency matters. Transportation matters. Your family matters. Your ability to adjust to another culture matters.

And that is why I always tell people: don't just plan the move. Pressure-test the plan.

That's why I built the Roadmap to Expat Readiness Review. It helps you see where your plan is solid, where the gaps are, and what you should work on next.

Start Your Readiness Review

Until next time,

MexitPlans Monte

“I'm Out.”