Seven out of ten residents feel safe walking alone in their city at night, a recent survey has revealed. In addition, more than 82 per cent of residents feel safe in cities like Copenhagen, Oviedo, Ljubljana and Groningen, among others.
On the other hand, in cities such as Rome, less than half of the residents feel safe. According to the Survey on the Quality of Life in European Cities, the Italian capital is one of the least safe cities in Europe, with only 38 per cent of respondents saying they feel safe walking alone at night in the city.
In general, cities in the southern European Member States are considered less safe than those in other regions. Although two southern cities – Oviedo in Spain and Braga in Portugal are two of the safest cities in Europe, cities like Rome, Athens and Naples continue to rank low.
The survey further revealed that in the cities in western and eastern European cities, the share of people feeling safe walking around the city at night is higher- 69 per cent, while the western Balkan cities compete second with 68 per cent of people saying they feel safe to walk around the city at night. Turkiye follows third with a share of 67 per cent of respondents considering the Turkish cities as safe.
In general, cities where residents feel the least safe to walk around at night include Sofia, Miskolc, Ostrava, Istanbul, Liege, Naples, Marseille, Athens and Rome.
Another important factor is that in France, the share of residents reporting that they feel safe walking at night can be different based on the city, with 82 per cent of residents finding Bordeaux safe compared to 43 per cent in Marseille.
Significant differences across cities within the same country are also found in Belgium (Liège 44 per cent, Antwerp 73 per cent ), Bulgaria (Sofia 48 per cent, Burgas 66 per cent), Czechia (Ostrava 45 per cent, Prague 62 per cent ), Greece (Athens 40 per cent, Heraklion 68 per cent ), Italy (Rome 37 per cent, Verona 64 per cent ), Romania (Bucharest 58 per cent, Cluj-Napoca 80 per cent) and Türkiye (Istanbul 44 per cent, Antalya 80 per cent ).
On the other hand, the difference was minor among cities in Denmark, Austria, Slovakia, Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
A higher sense of safety is reported in smaller cities, where 75 per cent of residents in places with less than 250,000 inhabitants say they feel secure, in contrast to 67 per cent in cities with populations ranging from one to five million.
Overall, the safety rates in the 2023 ‘Quality of Life’ survey across European cities are lower than the national average, with an average difference of nine percentage points.
However, certain countries, including Albania, Croatia, Malta, and Poland, exhibit slightly higher scores at the city level than at the national level. On the other hand, in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, and Portugal, city-level scores are significantly lower than the national averages.
The data also reveals that women tend to feel less safe in cities than men, with a reported safety rate of 67 per cent compared to 72 per cent. Similarly, residents aged 55 and above, as well as the unemployed, express lower feelings of safety compared to their counterparts, such as the younger generations and full-time employed individuals, respectively.
Educational attainment is also correlated with perceived safety, as 71 per cent of tertiary-educated residents report feeling safe in the city at night, in contrast to 67 per cent of those with basic education
