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The BaseScore scale

This page is the canonical reference

Every other page and report links here rather than restating the tiers. If you have seen a different set of ranges in an older document, this page is correct.

BaseScore is a 1–100 normalized risk index. 1 is the lowest threat level, 100 the highest. It is not a raw crime count — it is a weighted, normalized score accounting for how often incidents occur, how serious they are, and how recently they happened.

There is no score of 0

The scale starts at 1. A location that is not covered shows no score, not a zero. If you ever see a literal 0, treat it as something to report rather than as a low score — see when a location has no score.

Every BaseScore falls into one of five tiers, and each tier carries a definition of what it means on the ground and a recommended action. The score gives you meaning, not just a number.

The governing boundary sits at about 70

70 is the entry to the High tier — the point where violent threat takes over from property crime as the main driver of the score. If you remember one thing about the scale, remember that. It is the boundary that changes what you actually do.

The five tiers

Tier What it means on the ground How to act on it
Critical90–100 Organized violence dominates daily life: armed conflict, terrorism, or pervasive armed and gang violence. Parts of the area may be effectively off-limits. Hardened protocols, movement restrictions, executive-protection posture, continuous monitoring.
High70–89 Violent crime is the governing factor: weapon-related assault, violent robbery, gang activity. Property crime often involves force. Heightened precautions, vetted transport, route and time-of-day planning.
Medium50–69 Violent crime infrequent, localized, lower severity. Predictable property crime — theft, scams — is the main issue. Standard commercial precautions and property-crime controls.
Low30–49 Violent crime rare; low petty theft or vandalism. High perceived safety and strong social control. Baseline precautions, minimal behavioral adaptation.
Very Low0–29 Violent crime effectively absent; property crime rare and opportunistic. Crime does not factor into daily planning. Routine duty-of-care; near-total absence of location-driven precautions.

The colors are the platform's risk ramp

The swatch beside each tier is the BaseScore quintile ramp — the same blue-to-magenta scale the platform uses on the map and in score panels. Blue is lowest risk, magenta highest. The tier name is written out alongside it, so nothing here depends on seeing colour.

The platform shows the number, not the tier

In the platform you see a BaseScore — a number. The tier labels are not displayed there. This table is where you translate one into the other.

When you put a score into a document or a briefing, write the tier alongside it — "72 (High)", not "72". A bare number invites misreading by anyone who does not have this table in front of them.

The scale is logarithmic, not linear

This is the single most common misreading of BaseScore.

A move from 85 to 95 is not a 12% increase in risk — it is roughly a 3× increase. The scale compresses at the top so the most dangerous places on earth remain distinguishable from one another rather than clustering at 100.

Two practical consequences:

Do not do arithmetic on BaseScores. Averaging ten sites does not produce a meaningful portfolio score, and subtracting one score from another does not produce a meaningful risk difference. Compare tiers and rank order instead.

Critical is not one bucket. Because compression is steepest at the top, two locations scoring 90 and 99 are not comparable environments. Where a decision rests on a Critical location, look at the underlying figures rather than the tier.

What BaseScore does and does not cover

BaseScore is calculated from crime data. Civil unrest events — protests, political violence, demonstrations — are tracked and shown on the map, but they do not feed the BaseScore calculation.

This matters for anywhere with active unrest and low conventional crime. Such a location can carry a Low or Medium BaseScore while showing significant unrest activity on the map. The score is not wrong; it is answering a narrower question than the map is.

If unrest is material to your assessment, read the unrest events directly rather than expecting the score to reflect them. See civil unrest categories.

Reading a score in context

The tier tells you the character of the environment. The breakdown tells you what to do about it.

Two locations can both score 58 (Medium) and represent completely different problems. Check the BaseScore breakdown in the analytic panel to see which categories are driving the score:

A location scoring 58 (Medium) with a property crime sub-score of 74 (High) and a violent crime sub-score of 30 (Low) is a property crime environment, not a violent one. That distinction changes what you do about it.

The reverse case is the one to watch for. A Medium score where violent crime sits materially above the overall number is behaving like a location closer to the 70 boundary than its headline suggests — treat it accordingly.

Also check the surrounding area. A Medium site surrounded by High hexes tells a different story than a Medium site surrounded by Low ones. Hex view shows you that directly.