Scottish Household Survey 2025 findings: Neighbourhoods and Communities

Neighbourhood safety

In 2025, the majority of people (80%) said they felt ‘very’ or ‘fairly safe’ walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark (Table 37), this is a an improvement from 78% in 2024. There are differences by sex, [1] with 90% of men saying they would feel ‘very’ or ‘fairly safe’ walking alone after dark compared to 71% of women (Table 37).

Differences between places and sub-groups

Older people, and disabled people, feel less safe in their neighbourhoods. Sixty-two percent of adults aged 75 and over reported feeling ‘very’ or ‘fairly safe’ walking alone, compared to 85% of 45 to 59 year olds (Table 37). Disabled people were also much less likely than non-disabled people to report feeling safe walking alone after dark (64%, compared to 86% of non-disabled people) (Table 39).

Sixty-seven percent of adults living in the most deprived 20% of areas felt ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ safe walking alone, compared to 89% of those living in the least deprived 20% of areas (Table 37).

There is a clear association between how adults rated their neighbourhood and how safe they felt in their communities. Eighty-two percent of adults who rated their neighbourhood as ‘very’ or ‘fairly good', said they felt safe walking alone at night, compared with just 36% of adults who rated their neighbourhood as ‘very poor’ (Table 42).