Feeling of security

Relevance/Result

This indicator makes it possible to evaluate fears in the different groups of the population in terms of crime and physical violence. It provides information on the general feeling of security in Switzerland and in which integration must take place.

Note: On the German and French version of this page, the tables have been updated with the latest data. Graphs and texts will be updated shortly.

The proportion of the resident population aged 16 or over who felt secure in 2019 was 73%. The share of persons who felt secure does not significantly vary according to migration status.

Trends over time

The share of the population feeling safe increased between 2015 and 2018, regardless of the considered group. During this period, the rate increased by more than 10 percentage points in all groups, regardless of migration status. Between 2018 and 2019, the increase is only significant among the first generation (from 71% to 75%).

Major region

Although the feeling of security varies between major regions, the data shows significant differences between the groups according to migration status in Eastern Switzerland only, in the other majors regions the differences are not significant.

Definitions
Methodologies

This indicator reflects the feeling of security with those who felt secure responding to the following question with codes 0 to 2: "To what extent do you personally feel threatened by crime or physical violence? 0 means "not at all threatened" and 10 "completely threatened". The indicator measures the share of persons who do not feel threatened.

Between 2010 and 2012, the feeling of being unsafe was defined as: the feeling of being unsafe in the train, in the street near one’s home, and a fear that delinquents will cause them physical harm, fear of being harassed in the street.

Since 2015, the feeling of being unsafe is defined as: a feeling of being unsafe when travelling or at work and a fear of being a victim of an attack or physical aggression. The question remained the same but the instruction provided to the interviewers (not read out) has been broader since 2015. This may partly explain the decrease in the percentage of person feeling safe.

The question associated about the feeling of security was not asked in the SILC questionnaires from 2013 and 2014.

Following changes to the survey framework and improvements in the weighting model, results from 2014 on can no longer be directly compared with those from previous years (series break).

You can access the indicators in one of the following ways

All indicators

Some 68 indicators describe the current situation and changes in the integration of the population with a migration background and/or of foreign nationals in Switzerland in eleven areas of life in our society.

Key indicators

34 key indicators provide an overview of the progress made on the journey towards integration and the state of integration of the population with a migration background. If this information is lacking, the population is shown by nationality, and where this variable is available, the country of birth.