Security feeling in public spaces (i73)
- 30/11/2023
- objective
- assessment assessment
In 2021, 84.0% of the population aged 15 and over in Belgium felt safe in public spaces. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must increase. Between 2002 and 2021, the trend is favourable (assessment of November 2023).
Security feeling in public spaces - Belgium and international comparison
'very safe' and 'safe'
percentage of population aged 15 and over
| 2002 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2021 | 2021//2002 | 2021//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 76.2 | 81.0 | 80.7 | 78.7 | 81.4 | 81.8 | 84.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| Germany | 73.7 | 76.8 | 77.1 | 76.9 | 72.7 | 74.4 | -- | -- | -- |
| France | 68.5 | 73.1 | 73.1 | 72.3 | 74.9 | 75.7 | 75.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| Netherlands | 81.5 | 84.2 | 86.2 | 84.7 | 85.0 | 86.2 | 87.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
ESS (2023), Dataset European Social Survey, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/ (consulted on 18/10/2023); calculations FPB.
Security feeling in public spaces by sex - Belgium
'very safe' and 'safe'
percentage of population aged 15 and over
| 2002 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2021 | 2021//2002 | 2021//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 68.7 | 72.5 | 72.7 | 69.6 | 71.0 | 73.9 | 76.8 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| males | 84.5 | 89.9 | 89.1 | 88.6 | 92.2 | 89.9 | 91.5 | 0.4 | -0.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
ESS (2023), Dataset European Social Survey, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/ (consulted on 18/10/2023); calculations FPB.
Security feeling in public spaces by income - Belgium
'very safe' and 'safe'
percentage of population aged 15 and over
| 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2021 | 2021//2010 | 2021//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quintile 1 | 65.9 | 64.6 | 75.2 | 73.6 | 70.7 | 62.0 | -0.6 | -3.4 |
| quintile 2 | 77.0 | 75.9 | 76.5 | 77.7 | 80.5 | 80.7 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| quintile 3 | 82.2 | 82.8 | 77.6 | 78.3 | 78.7 | 89.1 | 0.7 | 2.6 |
| quintile 4 | 84.8 | 86.9 | 83.0 | 87.7 | 85.5 | 87.0 | 0.2 | -0.1 |
| quintile 5 | 89.5 | 89.5 | 85.3 | 90.3 | 92.3 | 90.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||
ESS (2023), Dataset European Social Survey, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/ (consulted on 18/10/2023); calculations FPB.
Definition: the security feeling in public spaces is the share of respondents of the European Social Survey (ESS) that answered "very safe" or "safe" to the following question: “How safe do you – or would you - feel walking alone in this area after dark?”. This question was covered in each of the ten biannual ESS surveys. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey for 2020 was postponed to 2021. The FPB calculates the indicator using the ESS data. Since these data are based on a survey, a margin of uncertainty has to be taken into account. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request.
Goal: the security feeling of the population in public spaces must increase.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 16.1: “Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere”.
International comparison: in Belgium, more people declare that they feel safe or very safe when they walk alone in their area after dark (84.0% in 2021) than in Germany (74.4% in 2018, no data for 2021) and France (75.5% in 2021). In the Netherlands (87.6% in 2021) more people declare that they feel (very) safe than in Belgium.
UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to indicator 16.1.4 - Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live.
Sources
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SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.
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Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.
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UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
- UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
Federal Planning Bureau
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