While New York City is considered the city that never sleeps, it's also got a track record for being a bit unsafe - which is why the Big Apple made headlines around the world in 2012 when the city's police department recorded zero violent crimes in a 24-hour period.

So you might be surprised to learn that - statistically speaking - London was more dangerous than NYC for the first time ever, during the month of February.

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A Sunday Times report found England's capital recorded 15 murders across the month, which was one victim more than New York. March is also expected to tip towards London with 22 people killed in London compared to 21 in NYC.

But the home of Broadway, the Freedom Tower, the Yankees, Time's Square and Wall Street has seen its crime drop steadily since its peak in the 1980s and 90s.

There have been a few theories as to why the level has fallen, with some people praising police for their renewed tactics, while others linked it to the legalisation of abortion. There was even an idea that pointed towards the removal of lead pollution from car exhaust fumes.

Credit: PA

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In 1990, a total of 2,245 people were murdered (which was the highest toll since records began in 1928). Skip to 2017, however, and the figure lies at 290 - a drop of nearly 90 percent.

London's homicide rate ebbs and flows with 184 killed in 1990, 139 in 1996, 204 in 2003 and 89 in 2012, but according to the Sunday Times report, it's ballooned by 40 percent in the last three years alone.

Fight for Peace charity head of programmes Jacob Whittingham told the paper: "What's scary about London is the randomness of the crime.

"With young people in London, you have no idea if and when you may be the victim of a violent crime - that's why they feel the need to carry weapons."

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Interestingly, Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick believes that social media is to blame.

Credit: PA

"There's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly," she told the Times.

Commissioner Dick says some people who post crimes on sites like YouTube only seek to glamorise violence and encourages revenge attacks.

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