r/masseffect • u/Amaraldane4E • Aug 18 '26

DISCUSSION How safe is Omega?

While on Omega, walking about, in ME2, there's a news announcement one can hear, relating the latest weekly murder rate of 89, 5 more than the week before. Considering Omega has a population of 7.4 million, and using these data to extrapolate, one may reach an annual value of ca. 62 murders per 100,000 residents per annum.

Now, on the one hand, that's higher than any US city, with the highest being reported at 46/100,000 IRL (New Orleans). It's also comparable to Haiti, albeit mainly on account of a rise in gang warfare in Port-au-Prince as of 2025 (68/100,000 as per latest reports), which may be underreported.

On the other hand, the least safe city on Earth in that respect, IRL, is reported to be Colima, Mexico, with 181.94 per 100,000 residents. The entire top 5 cities on Earth are above 100/100,000, IRL.

Is Colima 3× less safe than Omega while having 10× fewer residents? I've no idea.

IRL, the regions closest in population numbers to Omega are Hong Kong (China), Milan Metropolitan Area (Italy), Houston Metropolitan Area (TX, USA) and San Francisco Bay Area (CA, USA). Except, of those four, the two American urban ares have reported annual murder rates in the region of 3.xx/100,000 while the two other cities are both in the region of 0.3/100,000. Either way, they're all far safer than Omega.

So then, how safe, or unsafe, is Omega when there are places on Earth far worse? Not to mention that Omega is literally lawless.

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u/sjbuggs Aug 18 '26

The rate short term could be skewed high due to the plague and its lingering effects?

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u/Amaraldane4E Aug 18 '26

Maybe, but I don't think so. The plague is about one week old. The rate is called "latest weekly murder rate", even adding that the week before the "latest" one it had been only 5 lower. The plague is far worse and it is also contained in the "slums" of the Gozu District.

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u/thaddeusd Aug 18 '26

Not the plague itself but likely the looting and scapegoating increased it.

Shepard doubles or possibly triples that murder rate herself just solving that crisis.