The 50 Most Violent Cities In The World

REUTERS/Juan Carlos UlateA policeman frisks a bus passenger at a checkpoint outside the Olimpic Metropolitano stadium before the 2010 World Cup qualifier soccer match in San Pedro Sula.

Drug trafficking, gang wars, political instability, corruption, and poverty have combined to make Latin America by far the most homicidal region of the world.

The region has 40 percent of the world's murders, despite having only 8 percent of the population, according to the U.N.

The highest murder rate of all is in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with 169 homicides per 100,000 people, according to a study published earlier this year by Mexico's Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. The ranking does not count deaths in a war zone.

Forty-one of the top 50 dangerous cities are located in Latin America. US cities also made the list, lead by New Orleans at 17th, along with Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Oakland.