
Libya and Somalia are the most dangerous places on earth for 2020, according to a map designed for travellers that alerts them to risks abroad.

The annual interactive 'Travel Risk Map' reveals the countries where people are most likely to have trouble when it comes to road safety, security and medical matters.

The safest places have been labelled as Finland, Norway and Iceland - all Nordic countries.

Libya and Somalia both rank lowly in each of the three categories in the study - by international medical and security specialists International SOS - along with Afghanistan and Venezuela, meaning they are the most dangerous.

In contrast, Norway, Finland and Iceland are all labelled as having a low risk of medical problems, security and road safety issues, meaning they are the safest - along with the likes of Sweden and Greenland.

When it comes to health, countries with the highest risk of contracting medical issues or disease include African nations Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Sudan, Eritrea and the Central African Republic.

This map, by International SOS, shows the places most likely to put your health at risk. Low-risk countries are marked in green, medium in yellow, high in orange, very high in red and those that have a 'variable', such as Brazil and Russia, are marked in purple

Yemen was also labelled a high risk country when it came to health along with Syria and North Korea.

At the opposite end of the ranking, places with a low risk of disease are most of those in Europe, Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Japan.

For security, researchers evaluated the threat posed to travellers by political violence (including terrorism and insurgency), social unrest and violent and petty crime.

Countries with an extreme risk to travellers' safety include Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and parts of Nigeria.

Places, where security risks are deemed insignificant, are Norway, Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland and Slovenia.

This map shows which countries have the highest and lowest security risks, with those that have an insignificant risk marked in light green, 'low' risk countries are marked in yellow, medium in orange, high in red and extreme, such as Libya, in dark red

When it comes to road safety, the countries besides those in Africa that pose the greatest risk include Venezuela, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Most of Europe is ranked as having a low risk, along with Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Alongside the Travel Risk Map, the Ipsos MORI 'Business Resilience Trends Watch 2020', found that 47 per cent of business travellers expect travel risks to increase in next year.

This is down from 51 per cent predicting risk increase in 2019.

This map shows countries categorised according to road safety risks, with very low marked in pale pink, low in very light brown, moderate in a slightly darker shade and high and very high risk countries picked out using even darker browns

Doug Quarry, MD at International SOS, said: 'The threats facing organisations and their workforces are impacting established and emerging economies alike. It’s encouraging to see that decision makers are becoming increasingly aware of the threats of epidemics and infectious diseases.

'With over $1.7trillion expected to be invested by organisations by 2022, without taking into account human capital and productivity impacts of travel disruption, it’s important that organisations get ahead of whatever potential disruption they can.

'With accurate information, tools and support in place, organisations should, and can, plan for the anticipated risks and safeguard their investment and their people.'