One view of Pattaya emphasizes its seediness. PATTAYA, Thailand – All human life is here as the News of the World used to say. Today, British popular newspapers still pour out the rhetoric that Pattaya is the Cosa del Crime fueled by cheap booze: drugs smuggling, nightclub fights, grisly murder and fatal boat trips amongst other gruesome experiences. In sharp contrast, Pattaya mayor Poramet Ngampichet reminds us that Pattaya has just earned the 9th spot on the list of the safest cities in the entire south east Asian region. That’s according to the latest rankings from the global data base Numbeo which measures quality of life issues. There certainly appears to be a boom in British arrivals in the Land of Smiles. The Thai tourist ministry reports 121,529 UK passport holders in January 2025, more than any other European country or the United States. Since then, immigration statistics point to a continued rise in western tourists from traditional markets even as Chinese arrivals have slumped. When British Airways resumed direct flights to Thailand late last year, it looks like they knew what they were doing. If Thailand – and Pattaya in particular – was attracting more tourists who were likely to get into trouble, you might expect government statistics to reveal that expansionist trend. Yet the data available suggests very little change. 15 years ago, the total number of Brits arrested in Thailand was just 201 according to British Behaviour Abroad, a figure close to that released by the British embassy in Bangkok for the year 2024. Not all those arrested in Thailand are necessarily jailed. Those on minor charges are sometimes fined and released within 48 hours. Another view of Pattaya emphasizes it’s changed out of all recognition. The Thai Department of Corrections, in its most recent report, reported that the total number of foreigners in Thai jails was 7,388 or 2.8 percent of the entire prison population. British prisoners did not even figure in the top ten and comprised 13 individuals on the day the census was taken. On British deaths in Thailand, the total for 2023 was 374 (compared with 697 in Spain) and many of those were elderly expats dying from natural causes. The total for annual British deaths in Thailand (350-400) has held remarkably steady for the past 20 years. As regards murders and violent deaths, Hansard reported in May 2025 that the biggest number of Brits meeting a grisly fate was in Pakistan, followed by Tunisia, France and the United States. Thailand has certainly hosted murderous cases over the years and Koh Tao has been labelled by the British media as Death Island. But official statistics are usually soft data and, if read in isolation, can often give a very jaundiced view of what’s going on worldwide. Maybe Pattaya is a deadly paradise, or maybe we are the victims of shock-horror clickbait. As a former chief of Pattaya police put it, “I have to report that well over 99 percent of foreigners here never see the inside of a cell, a court room or a mortuary.”