Singapore and New Zealand are joint No.1 as the safest cities for women in the Asia Pacific, with impressive healthcare, safety and opportunity indicators, according to a study by ValueChampion, a value comparison website for insurance, credit cards, and other financial services.

The ranking report, which was released ahead of International Women's Day which falls today, says that Singapore and New Zealand have scored consistently well on major global indices such as the 2018 Global Peace Index and 2018 Human Development Index, indicating that these countries have low levels of internal and international conflicts, suffer minor gender inequality and see positive developmental and opportunity growth potential. Crime rates are low (Singapore has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world) and there are laws against marital rape, domestic assault and sexual harassment.

Furthermore, both countries have impressive health indicators. Life expectancy rates are about 11-12 years above the global average and infant and maternal mortality rates are significantly below average. These measures indicate women have access to high quality healthcare, adequate pre-natal and post-natal medical care and proper nutrition and sanitation. Furthermore, women have access to contraception, sexual education and family planning.

Women in the two countries also have equal-opportunity protections, with high levels of education, literacy and employment, indicating that they are less restricted in terms of economic mobility.

The rankings of the 14 countries/territories covered are:

India, Indonesia, and the Philippines rank at the bottom. ValueChampion says that these countries were found to have subpar access to healthcare, lax laws regarding women's safety, poor access to family planning resources and overall inequality. Despite government interventions and attempts to enact laws that protect women's safety, deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes either due to cultural or religious beliefs led to women fearing for their well-being more often than in other countries on the list.

Furthermore, these are also still developing countries, meaning that access to healthcare isn't always the highest or high-quality healthcare and education may be inaccessible in some parts of the country. The maternal mortality rate of these three countries is above 100 deaths per 100,000 women (compared less than 10 deaths in top ranked countries).

The study focused on the health and safety of women living in major Asian cities. To rank the countries, ValueChampion used a weighted average that weighted safety the most, followed by healthcare and opportunity. The safety ranking examines legal protections and quality life of a country.