Economic activity continues to pick up around the country, and particularly in the capital, Bogot. Here, the biggest reason for an improved economy is a sharply lower crime rate. At its worst, in the mid 1990s, the murder rate was 80 per 100,000 population per year (over 4,000 victims a year). That rate is now under 20 per 100,000. By comparison, the rate in New York City (the safest big city in the U.S.) is under 7, and over a hundred in Baghdad (currently the murder capital of the world, thanks to Islamic terrorist activity.)