Displaying items by tag: Inequality
The Gallup "Global Safety Report 2025" reveals a striking paradox: in an era experiencing more armed conflicts than at any time since the Second World War, the global population's personal perception of safety has never been higher.
This report measures public confidence using the benchmark question for the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 16: "Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?". The findings offer a complex and nuanced picture, especially for Europe.
A world that feels safer
Globally, 2024 marked a historic milestone. 73 per cent of adults worldwide said they feel safe walking alone at night. This is the highest figure recorded since Gallup began tracking the metric in 2006.
This positive trend is visible across several regions. The Asia-Pacific (79 per cent) and Western Europe (77 per cent) lead the rankings for perceived safety. Even Latin America and the Caribbean, while remaining among the least safe regions, reached the 50 per cent threshold for the first time.
At a national level, Singapore leads the world, with 98 per cent of residents feeling safe. At the other end of the spectrum is South Africa, where just 33 per cent of adults feel safe.
However, the report shows a clear fracture in this perception: the gender gap. Globally, there is an 11-percentage-point gap between men who feel safe (78 per cent) and women (67 per cent). This disparity, the report demonstrates, is particularly stark in the world's wealthiest regions.
Focus on Europe – a dark mirror for women's safety
Western Europe shines in the general rankings. With a 77 per cent regional score for perceived safety, it has matched or set new records. Countries like Norway (91 per cent), Denmark (89 per cent), Finland (88 per cent), and Switzerland (88 per cent) are among the safest in the world.
And yet, the Gallup report provides a critical insight: Europe has a systemic problem with women's perceived safety.
The report highlights that the largest gender gaps are found almost exclusively in "high-income economies". It explicitly states that the European Union is "overrepresented" in the list of the 10 countries with the largest gaps.
Five of the ten countries with the widest gender gap globally are EU members:
- Italy: Presents a 32-point gap. While 76 per cent of men feel safe, only 44 per cent of women do.
- Malta: A 29-point gap (85 per cent of men vs 56 per cent of women).
- Greece: A 26-point gap (77 per cent of men vs 51 per cent of women).
- Cyprus: A 26-point gap (85 per cent of men vs 59 per cent of women).
- The Netherlands: A 26-point gap (95 per cent of men vs 69 per cent of women).
The case of Italy is particularly striking. The 44 per cent of women who feel safe is not only the lowest figure in the European Union, but it is also the lowest figure for Italian women in more than a decade.
To put this figure into perspective, the Gallup report makes a stark comparison: the level of safety perceived by women in Italy (44 per cent) is on par with that of women in Uganda (44 per cent). In the same country, the safety perception of Italian men (76 per cent) is similar to that of men in Germany (78 per cent).
The 2025 Gallup report, while celebrating global progress, serves as a strong warning for Europe. It demonstrates that economic progress and strong institutions, by themselves, do not "eliminate inequality in how safe people—particularly women—feel in their daily lives". In a continent that perceives itself as a beacon of safety, the data shows this safety remains a profoundly unequal experience—a privilege not yet extended to all its citizens.
