Does the World Feel Safe Walking Alone at Night?
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I have never felt safe walking alone at night anywhere in the world. Darkness spells vulnerability. And if there isn’t anyone to help you if something goes wrong, you’re going to be in trouble. When I say “goes wrong,” I mean anything from tripping and falling, having a medical emergency, or being attacked.
But then, I also wouldn’t swim in the sea or climb a mountain on my own.
However, what we are considering here is whether people feel safe walking alone in the city or the area where they live. The reality is that many people have to walk home from work, visit friends or family, or go to a shop for provisions after dark. There are many other reasons, too.
Remarkably, Gallup, the leading American analytics and advisory company known for its public opinion polls and its focus on workplace performance, employee engagement, and well-being, released a new report in September 2025 that indicates 73% of adults worldwide DO feel safe walking alone at night.
However, only 33% of South Africans feel safe walking alone at night.
The Gallup report, Who Feels Safe Globally and Who Doesn’t is based on a survey of more than 145,000 adults in 144 countries and territories. The results of their primary question range from 33% to 98%, with South Africa ranking right at the bottom of the list and Singapore at the top. There’s no guessing where tourists will want to go!
Here are the 10 safest and the 10 least safe cities Gallup identified from their survey.
Anyone living in southern Africa will notice that those living in Botswana and Lesotho don’t feel much safer than South Africans. Those in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Zimbabwe don’t feel much better either.
For South Africans, the fact that those living in Singapore are close to feeling 100% walking alone at night is likely to be a shock. Why do we feel so unsafe?
But here’s the real shocker…
Are We Living in a Safer World?
Gallup’s research says, yes, we are. Even if South Africans say no, we aren’t, we need to consider the evidence and then do some introspection.
“On a global level, people feel safer today than they have in years.” Gallup
Other key stats the report reveals are that there are four regions where global safety perceptions have increased:
- Asia-Pacific
- Western Europe
- Latin America
- sub-Saharan Africa
The report also identifies 104 countries where women feel significantly less safe than men.
The global gender gap shows between different countries are immense. In 2024, 25% of women in South Africa said they feel safe walking alone at night, compared with 43% of men. In Singapore, 98% of men vs. 97% of women reported feeling safe in 2024.
Additionally, high-income countries top the list of the largest gender gaps in safety. That’s a stat that has me scratching my head!
“The United States, for example, has a 26-point gender gap in perceptions of safety. If rankings were based solely on the percentage of women who feel safe walking alone at night (58%), the U.S. would drop to 77th globally, instead of ranking 61st.” Gallup
From Gallup’s world map, you can see that North America is somewhere in the middle.
Also, the report states that Italy recorded the lowest percentage of women who said they feel safe walking alone at night (44%), This is notably the lowest among EU countries and the lowest for Italian women in more than a decade.
Law and Order
Gallup didn’t only address personal safety. Their survey also looked at law and order, including people’s confidence in their local police and their personal experiences regarding theft and assault. While South Africa isn’t right at the bottom of this list, it’s close enough to the bottom to make South Africans concerned.
Rankings from other southern African countries include:
- Eswatini 66
- Lesotho 67
- Zimbabwe 68
According to the Center on International Cooperation (CIC), a research center and think tank at New York University, “the world is experiencing more conflicts now than at any point since World War II.” Certainly, political polarization has deepened across regions, and trust in political institutions is at historic lows.
However, a 2023 global study on homicide undertaken by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime highlights the disparity between what makes headlines and what people actually face day to day.
“While conflict-related violence often dominates headlines, it is interpersonal violence, which occurs in people’s homes and on the streets, that directly affects people’s daily lives. Intentional homicides, for example, account for nearly four times more deaths than conflict and terrorism combined.” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
On the bright side, they highlight that rising perceptions of safety, along with declining violence rates, demonstrate that interpersonal violence is not inevitable and can be reduced.
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