Australians planning a move overseas might want to consider staying home, with both Sydney and Melbourne making a list of the top 10 safest cities in the world.

The Economist’s Intelligence Unit Safe Cities Index 2015 ranked the top 50 cities for safety, based on measures like health, personal and infrastructure safety, and digital security.

Sydney was named the sixth safest city in the world with a good liveability ranking and relatively low instances of petty crime.

• Melbourne vs Sydney: who wins the showdown?
• Sydney house prices skyrocket

Melbourne was named the ninth safest thanks to its great infrastructure system and high life expectancy of 86 years.

Japan’s capital of Tokyo took the top spot, rated best for personal safety and infrastructure safety, despite having regular earthquakes and a population of 38 million – the world’s largest urban population according to the United Nations.

Asian cities dominated the top spots, with Singapore coming second for its high incomes and low instances of burglary and theft, and Osaka coming third for its low levels of crime.

Japan and Australia were the only countries with two cities in the top 10.

Melbourne ranked second for infrastructure, eighth for personal safety, 20th for digital security like identity theft, and 14th for health security like hospital beds to population size.

Sydney ranked third for infrastructure, 10th for personal safety, 14th for digital security and 17th for health security.

New York was the only American city in the top 10, taking 10th place, while London came in at number 18.

Top 10 safest cities

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Singapore
3. Osaka, Japan
4. Stockholm, Sweden
5. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Zurich, Switzerland
8. Toronto, Canada
9. Melbourne, Australia
10. New York, USA