El Salvador has been placed for the first time among the “safest” countries in the world, according to the Global Security Report published this Monday by the consulting firm Gallup, which states that 88% of its citizens feel safe walking alone at night.
The analytics firm attributes the record figure to the recent offensive by Nayib Bukele’s government against gangs.
El Salvador is one percentage point ahead of countries like Switzerland, Iceland and LuxembourgHowever, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as sub-Saharan Africa, remain the regions where people feel least safe walking alone at night, with respective percentages of 47% and 51%.
Ecuador, for example, was ranked as the country with the lowest safety score in the world, with only 27% of its residents saying they felt safe walking alone at night, a new all-time low for the Central American country.
The country is facing a security crisis that has intensified since the Covid-19 pandemic, with a homicide rate of nearly 50 per 100,000 people in 2023, according to Gallup data.
Ecuador is only three percentage points behind countries like South Africa and Liberia.which are statistically tied, with 30%, while Chile is also among the least safe countries with 36%.
In the 2022 report, 42% of Ecuador’s adult population said they felt safe walking alone at night, and Afghanistan was the country with the worst score, at 22%.
The Global Security Report: Measuring Personal Security Around the World also found that Israelone of the “safest” countries in 2022, has seen a 14 percentage point drop in security since the Hamas attacks of October 7.
82% of Israelis felt safe walking alone at night in 2022, compared to 68% of residents who said they did so in the last survey.
Kuwait, with 99%, tops the list of countries with the best perception of safety, followed by Singapore (94%) and Norway (92%).
The report also reveals that 70% of adults worldwide say they feel safe walking alone at night by 2023a significant increase from the 64% who said the same in 2013, but a decrease of two percentage points from 2020.
