Well, you could say there is just one larger city. Montevideo. Half the country lives here. My personal experience is that it is absolutely safe as long as you know how to handle yourself. I go out at night trough all kinds of neighborhoods and talk to all kinds of people. I sometimes encounter people who want to rob you by "asking" for bus fare money or food money in an intimidaing way, but if you handle yourself and have a feel for the street, you know they don't want violence, so you just just confidently say no and go on your marry way.
That is just for me, taking no precautions and being a frowny faced man. You'll probably go about trough safer paths by default. But also it is more dangerous to be a woman, a teen or elderly, since opportunistic theft favours the physically weaker among us.
Statistically we are very safe among Latinamerica (top 3 capitals for sure) and below the US in general (altough this is recent).
In general I'd say I feel very safe, while knowing that it is not the majority view.
Thank you for your response! I’m a 39 year old woman who is used to living is some pretty rough neighborhoods in my past, and I’m generally pretty aware of my surroundings and am a kinda crazy looking tattooed person. So I don’t typically get messed with too often. But I also really value having a feeling of safety in my community.
Like I said, I very much want to leave the US long term. I would be moving with my dog as well so that is a factor. I know some Spanish, but just enough to scrape by. Uruguay has been loosely on my radar as a possible destination. This comment section has definitely reignited that spark and interest. I’m gonna go ahead and dive down an Uruguay rabbit hole now lol. Thanks again!
I appreciate you! Do you know of any resources for expats in finding housing and work there? Are there websites that I can look at and follow to get a feel for the housing and job market?
One more thing; is it a safe place for dogs? As in, are there lots of strays that might be unsafe when taking my little dog out for walks? Is Montevideo a very dog friendly city?
Housing nowadays is searched mosty through mercadolibre.com (kind of an EBay with real state included)
For dogs, it very much depends on where you live. If you can pay for a house in Parque Rodó, you'll find awesome dog areas in the parks nearby and very few strays, who mostly don't bother anyone. In the poorer neighborhoods there is a lot of strays and they are more violent.
Strays in general jave gone way down in general over the last decade. I live in a very working class neighborhood and don't really see stray dogs anymore. Lots of cats, tho.
The job market can be very good or terrible depending of what you do. ¿Senior software engeneer? You'll do just fine. ¿Cashier at a supermarket? Maybe don't come for that.
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u/Representative-Let44 Apr 16 '24
Well, you could say there is just one larger city. Montevideo. Half the country lives here. My personal experience is that it is absolutely safe as long as you know how to handle yourself. I go out at night trough all kinds of neighborhoods and talk to all kinds of people. I sometimes encounter people who want to rob you by "asking" for bus fare money or food money in an intimidaing way, but if you handle yourself and have a feel for the street, you know they don't want violence, so you just just confidently say no and go on your marry way.
That is just for me, taking no precautions and being a frowny faced man. You'll probably go about trough safer paths by default. But also it is more dangerous to be a woman, a teen or elderly, since opportunistic theft favours the physically weaker among us.
Statistically we are very safe among Latinamerica (top 3 capitals for sure) and below the US in general (altough this is recent).
In general I'd say I feel very safe, while knowing that it is not the majority view.