A recent survey has unveiled that seven out of ten residents feel safe walking alone in their city at night. Additionally, more than 82 percent of residents feel safe in cities like Copenhagen, Oviedo, Ljubljana, and Groningen, among others. These cities are considered some of the safest in Europe based on the survey on the Quality of Life in European Cities.
However, cities such as Rome have less than half of the residents feeling safe. In fact, the Italian capital is considered one of the least safe cities in Europe, with only 38 percent of respondents saying they feel safe walking alone at night in the city.
Overall, cities in the southern European Member States are considered less safe than those in other regions. Despite Oviedo in Spain and Braga in Portugal being two of the safest cities in Europe, cities like Rome, Athens, and Naples continue to rank low in terms of safety.
The survey also revealed that western and eastern European cities have a higher percentage of people feeling safe walking around the city at night compared to southern European Member States. Turkiye follows third with a share of 67 percent of respondents considering the Turkish cities as safe.
On the other hand, the difference was minor among cities in Denmark, Austria, Slovakia, Finland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
In smaller cities, 75 percent of residents in places with less than 250,000 inhabitants say they feel secure, in contrast to 67 percent 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. Additionally, women tend to feel less safe in cities than men, with a reported safety rate of 67 percent compared to 72 percent. 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 percent of tertiary-educated residents report feeling safe in the city at night, in contrast to 67 percent of those with basic education.
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