A late evening in one’s own neighbourhood is not the same experience for everyone. For many women, it also involves vigilance, worry or the decision not to go out at all.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention’s National Safety Survey 2025 puts figures on that difference. The results show that insecurity is widespread, clearly divided by gender and unevenly distributed across age groups and neighbourhoods.
What does BRÅ measure?
The National Safety Survey, known as NTU in Swedish, is conducted every year by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, BRÅ. The 2025 report is based on responses from more than 65,000 people.
One question asks how safe a person feels when walking alone late at night in their own neighbourhood. The reported result includes people who feel fairly or very unsafe, as well as people who do not go out at all because they feel unsafe.
In 2025, 25 percent of the population said they belonged to one of these groups. That is one in four people and approximately the same level as the year before. Read BRÅ’s National Safety Survey 2025.
The difference between women and men is clear
The average for the whole population conceals a large gender difference.
Among women, 32 percent said they felt unsafe or stayed indoors because they felt unsafe. The corresponding share among men was 18 percent.
That is a difference of 14 percentage points.
BRÅ’s statistics also show that the proportion of women reporting insecurity has been considerably higher than the proportion of men throughout the measurement period from 2007 to 2025. The figures have moved up and down, but the gender gap has remained.
Around four in ten young women feel unsafe
Insecurity is particularly widespread among young women.
Among women aged 16 to 19, the proportion was 39.5 percent. Among women aged 20 to 24, it was 41.2 percent. This means that around four in ten young women feel unsafe or do not go out alone late at night in their own neighbourhood because of insecurity.
The proportion is also high among older women. Among women aged 75 to 84, it was 38 percent.
BRÅ therefore describes a pattern in which both younger and older women are among the groups experiencing the greatest insecurity. The detailed figures appear in BRÅ’s tables for NTU 2007 to 2025.
The neighbourhood also matters
Insecurity is not distributed equally between places.
According to BRÅ, the proportion reporting insecurity is almost twice as high among people living in areas with socioeconomic challenges as among people living in areas with favourable socioeconomic conditions.
Insecurity is also more common among people living in apartment buildings than among people living in detached houses. People living alone report higher levels than people living with a partner.
This means that phrases such as “regardless of where you live” are misleading. The gender difference is clear, but neighbourhood and living situation also matter.
Insecurity is not an individual failure
NTU cannot explain why an individual person feels unsafe. Nor does the survey show that all women experience evenings, places or situations in the same way.
It does show that insecurity is so widespread and so clearly divided by gender that it cannot reasonably be dismissed as individual oversensitivity.
When almost one in three women reports the same kind of insecurity, the issue is larger than the individual. It also concerns freedom, access to public space and the ability to move through everyday life on equal terms.
Safety should not be built on more rules for women
Conversations about women’s safety often end in instructions about clothing, routes, times and behaviour. That shifts responsibility onto the people already affected by insecurity.
BRÅ’s figures point towards a broader conversation. Safety is also shaped by public environments, urban planning, public transport, local organisations, community and the ways people can remain connected when needed.
This is an important starting point for Spher. The app’s central safety and community functions are free and include live location, alerts to selected contacts, audio recording when an alert is activated, a community-based Safety Map and groups for women. More information is available on the page about Spher’s app and features.
Spher also runs First Meet Spot, where cafés are recommended as public settings for a first meeting with someone previously known only through online contact.
The figures change the conversation
NTU 2025 does not show that women need to be less cautious or become better at managing insecurity.
It shows that safety remains unevenly distributed.
Almost one in three women feels unsafe or does not go out alone late at night in her own neighbourhood because of insecurity. Among young women, the figure is around four in ten.
This is not an insignificant exception. It is a pattern that deserves to be made visible, understood and taken seriously.