Number of people who feel unsafe is rising
- Since 2021, people in the Netherlands have been feeling more unsafe, following a previous decline.
- Young women are over twice as likely to feel unsafe than young men.
- People who live in cities are more likely to feel unsafe than people who live in rural areas.
In 2025, 37 percent of people said they felt generally unsafe at times, compared to 33 percent in 2019. In recent years, more people have felt unsafe in their own neighbourhoods, too. Young women are the most likely to feel unsafe at times, at 60 percent. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on its 2025 Safety Monitor, a survey of people aged 15 or older that is carried out every two years.
Over the past twenty years, the number of people indicating that they feel generally unsafe fell from 50 percent in 2005 to 37 percent in 2025. The drop was particularly pronounced at the beginning of that period, falling to 39 percent by 2008. Since 2021, a general feeling of unsafety has been rising again after several years of fluctuation and a few years with little change. By 2025, they had returned to the same level as in 2015.
17 percent of people reported feeling less safe in their own neighbourhood, compared to 14 percent in 2019. This is less than half the number of people who sometimes feel generally unsafe.
| Jaar | Generally (% of adults aged 15 yrs and over) | In their neighbourhood (% of adults aged 15 yrs and over) |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 50 | |
| 2006 | 43.9 | |
| 2007 | 40.4 | |
| 2008 | 39.1 | 15.9 |
| 2009 | 39.6 | 17.6 |
| 2010 | 40.4 | 17.1 |
| 2011 | 38.8 | 17.8 |
| 2012 | 37.9 | 17.1 |
| 2013 | 38 | 17.8 |
| 2014 | 37.2 | 17.3 |
| 2015 | 36.8 | 17.1 |
| 2016 | 35.9 | 15.6 |
| 2017 | 35.3 | 15.6 |
| 2018 | ||
| 2019 | 33 | 13.7 |
| 2020 | ||
| 2021 | 33 | 13.9 |
| 2022 | ||
| 2023 | 34.9 | 15 |
| 2024 | ||
| 2025 | 37.2 | 16.8 |
Young women most likely to feel unsafe
The share of women aged 15 to 24 who feel unsafe is more than double that of men in the same age group: 60 percent versus 27 percent. This has hardly changed over the past four years. Since 2021, more people have felt unsafe, particularly women aged 25 or older. However, there has also been an increase among men aged between 25 and 65.
| 2025 (% ) | 2023 (% ) | 2021 (% ) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | |||
| 15-24 yrs | 27.2 | 27.4 | 27.3 |
| 25-44 yrs | 30.1 | 28.4 | 26.1 |
| 45-64 yrs | 26.6 | 26.2 | 23.6 |
| 65 yrs and over | 20.4 | 19.2 | 19.4 |
| Women | |||
| 15-24 yrs | 59.5 | 61.2 | 59.0 |
| 25-44 yrs | 55.3 | 49.5 | 47.8 |
| 45-64 yrs | 47.4 | 42.7 | 39.4 |
| 65 yrs and over | 33.3 | 29.5 | 28.3 |
General feeling of unsafety more pronounced in large cities
In 2025, 43 percent of residents of very highly urbanised municipalities generally felt unsafe at times, compared to 29 percent of people living in non-urban municipalities. Residents of both urbanised and less urbanised municipalities felt less safe in 2025 than in 2021.
Residents of very highly urbanised municipalities (24 percent) also felt unsafe in their own neighbourhood more often than people living in non-urban municipalities (10 percent).
| Stedelijkheid gemeente | 2025 (% of people aged 15 yrs and over) | 2023 (% of people aged 15 yrs and over) | 2021 (% of people aged 15 yrs and over) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very highly urbanised | 43.4 | 40.4 | 39.3 |
| Highly urbanised | 39.1 | 36.8 | 34.6 |
| Moderately urbanised | 34.0 | 32.0 | 31.0 |
| Slightly urbanised | 31.6 | 29.8 | 27.6 |
| Non-urban | 29.4 | 27.7 | 24.8 |