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| - THE claim that certain countries have the highest rates of kidnappings has been circulating on social media.
The claim was made in a post by a TikTok user, @Jacobmhoff, in a 69-second video.
In the video, he stated that Mexico, India and Nigeria are the three countries with the most kidnapping cases in the world.
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Part of the audio transcribed reads:
Top three countries with the most kidnappings, Number three is Mexico, who is shocked nobody because we all know Mexico is somebody’s problem, there’s great culture, cuisine [redacted] running around ruining the culture. There’s great culture cuisine people in Mexico and these people are getting in the way… Number two is India, India has got a lot of kidnapping … and number one there is [redacted] Nigeria.
The TikTok video has garnered over 14,000 likes plus more than 1,400 comments, and over 400 reposts as of March 2, 2025.
Due to the sensitive nature of the claim The FactCheckHub decided to fact-check the veracity of the claim.
CLAIM
Mexico, India and Nigeria are countries with the most kidnappings in the world.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE!
A 2024 report by the World Population Review on kidnappings per country highlighted the 10 countries with the highest kidnapping rates.
According to the data, Turkey, Lebanon, and Kuwait ranked as the top three countries, with incident rates of 42.669, 15.384, and 12.69 per 100,000 people, respectively.
A 2023 report by Insider Monkey, which ranked 30 countries with the highest kidnapping rates, also listed Turkey, Lebanon, and Kuwait as the top three, using the same statistics.
Additionally, news reports by CEO World Biz and BusinessDay highlighted these countries as having the highest kidnapping rates globally.
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However, further checks revealed that a 2013 Business Insider report ranked Mexico as the country with the highest kidnapping rate, followed by India, with Nigeria being the third among the top three countries with the most kidnappings that year.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Mexico, India and Nigeria are countries with the most kidnappings in the world is FALSE; data show that Turkey, Lebanon and Kuwait are the top three countries with the most kidnappings in the world as of 2024.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
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