Global Lawand Order2023

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Sustainable Development Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive
societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all,and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
The United Nations’ most recent progress reporton its Sustainable Development Goals for 2030
warned that “structural injustices, inequalities
and emerging human rights challenges are
putting peaceful and inclusive societies furtherout of reach” and issued a call to action to“restore trust and to strengthen the capacity ofinstitutions to secure justice for all …”

Gallup’s Law and Order Index uses
four questions to gauge people’s
sense of personal security and theirown experiences with crime andlaw enforcement.

Law and Order Index• In the city or area where you live,
do you have confidence in the local
police force?

Gallup’s latest global update on people’s
perceptions of their own security and trust in therule of law in 2022 provides a sense of where
the world stands today and where its biggest
obstacles are in each of these regards.

• Do you feel safe walking alone
at night in the city or area
where you live?

The results overall show these two measuresremained mostly stable between 2021 and2022. One security metric — the proportionof people who feel safe walking alone aroundthe area where they live (one of the indicatorsof UN’s Goal 16) — showed no improvement,
while people’s confidence in the police rose twopercentage points. Both percentages remain
higher than at almost all points since 2006.

• Within the last 12 months, have you
had money or property stolen fromyou or another household member?

• Within the past 12 months, have you
been assaulted or mugged?
The 2023 Global Law and Order reportpresents the results from Gallup’s latest
measurements of people’s answers tothese questions, based on interviews
with over 146,000 adults in more than
140 countries and areas in 2022.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Law and Order Index
WO RL DW I D E 2 0 2 2% Yes49962Copyright © 2023 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Global Law and Order | 2023

Countries/Areas With Highest
Law and Order Index Scores
COUNTRY / AREACountries/Areas With Lowest
Law and Order Index Scores

LAW AND
ORDER INDEXCOUNTRY / AREALAW AND
ORDER INDEX

Tajikistan

96

Bolivia61

Finland

92

Peru

61

Iceland

92

Uganda60

Kuwait92

Cameroon

59

Luxembourg

92

Ecuador59

Norway

92

Gabon

59

Vietnam

92

South Africa

59

Switzerland

91

Denmark90

The Republicof the Congo

58

Indonesia

90

Sierra Leone

57

Kosovo90The Gambia

56

Slovenia

90

Liberia

49

Uzbekistan

90

Based on Gallup surveys in 2022

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Most of the World Remains
Confident in Police, Feels Secure
Little progress in 2022

Roughly seven in 10 people worldwide said in2022 that they feel safe walking alone at night
where they live (71%) and have confidence
in their local police (72%). About one in eight(12%) said they had property stolen from themor another household member in the past year,
and one in 16 (6%) said they were assaulted
or mugged.
None of these figures changed much between
2021 and 2022. The percentage of people
who said they feel safe walking alone at night
remained unchanged from the previous year
and the percentage who were assaulted ormugged didn’t waver for a fifth consecutive year.
Meanwhile, the percentage of people in 2022
who said they had property stolen rose one pointfrom 11% in 2021.
Only people’s faith in their local police showedsome promise. After stalling in 2021, people’s
confidence in their local police started torise again — increasing two points to reach anumerical high in the 17 years that Gallup has
been asking this question.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Gallup compiles the “positive” responses tothese four questions into a Law and Order Indexscore for each country. The higher the score,
the higher the proportion of the populationthat reports feeling safe. The index score forthe world in 2022 was 83 out of a possible 100— unchanged from 2021 and essentially nodifferent from scores since 2017.

Tajikistan, the current leader, trailed only
Singapore on the index in 2021. Prior to 2022,
Singapore had scored the highest on theindex nearly every year except 2020. However,Singapore did not receive a score on the index
in 2022 because only one of the four index
questions was asked.
In Afghanistan’s case, the country’s index scoreskyrocketed from 51 in 2021 to 76 in 2022, asAfghans’ reports of assault and theft continued
to plummet while a record percentage ofresidents — bolstered by a solid majority of men— reported feeling safe walking alone at night.
Previously, Afghanistan had scored the lowest on
the index in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

Scores at the country level in 2022 ranged froma high of 96 in Tajikistan to a low of 49 in Liberia.
While neither Tajikistan nor Liberia have been
first or last on the index in the past — Singaporeand Afghanistan have typically occupied these
two spots — they are frequently among thehighest- and lowest-scoring countries fromyear to year.
Liberia’s low score on the index in 2022 is mostly
attributable to the high percentage of residents
who have been victims of crime and their lack offaith in the police. A majority of Liberians (53%)
said they or other household members had
money or property stolen in the past year, which
was one of the highest rates in the world, alongwith Sierra Leone (52%). Also, less than half ofLiberians (45%) expressed confidence in theirlocal police.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America
Still Face Biggest Security Obstacles
Latin America, post-Soviet
Eurasia continue to improve

For years, people in Latin America and theCaribbean and sub-Saharan Africa have been
the least likely among all global regions to feelsecure in their communities. This remains
true today. However, the two regions are on
opposite trajectories.
After scoring higher than Latin America and theCaribbean from 2017 to 2019, sub-SaharanAfrica has trailed that region on Gallup’s Law andOrder Index for the past three consecutive years.
As scores in Latin America and the Caribbeanimproved in 2022 and the score for sub-SaharanAfrica stayed the same, the gap between themhas only widened.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Law and Order Index by Region
Region

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Change from2021 to 2022

East Asia

879092

92

94

94±0

Western Europe

85

86

86

87

85

86

+1U.S. and Canada

858385

87

84

83-1

Southeast Asia

8685858386

86±0Eastern Europe81

81818281

83+2Middle East and North Africa

8081

81818281-1South Asia

8380

79

81

80

81+1Post-Soviet Eurasia

7476

77

77

78

82+4Latin America and the Caribbean

62

63

66

66

67

69+2Sub-Saharan Africa

6867

67

65

66

66

±0In most regions, the 2022 scores on the Lawand Order Index were relatively within the rangeof where they have been for the past few years.
However, scores in post-Soviet Eurasia and Latin
America and the Caribbean continued theirpositive trajectories.

Notably, the score for the U.S. and Canada —which suffered one of the biggest regional
declines in 2021 — did not change statistically in
2022, but the countries continued to head in thewrong direction. Perceptions of safety declined
most in Canada, where the index score dropped
four points in 2022 to a new low of 83 —matching the score for the U.S., which remained
stagnant from the previous year.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, small yearover-year improvements in highly populated
countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina(all up two points) and large increases incountries such as Venezuela (up 11 points)
helped nudge the region’s overall scorehigher in 2022.

Although most Canadians continue to trust theirlocal police (78%) and feel safe walking alone atnight (74%), both measures dropped to new lowsin 2022. The public’s faith has eroded as violent
crime keeps rising in Canada, where the murderrate in 2022 was the highest in 30 years.

The higher score in post-Soviet Eurasia —even as two countries in the region, Russia andUkraine, are at war — is mostly attributable toat least one-point increases in scores in mostcountries, except Russia and Moldova, wherescores slipped one point and stayed the same,respectively. A score for Ukraine is not available.
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Global Law and Order | 2023

Basotho Least Likely in the World toFeel Safe Walking Alone at Night
Afghans no longer the least safe

While Afghans have consistently felt the least
safe of any population around the world foryears, residents of the small Southern Africancountry of Lesotho displaced them in 2022.
Fewer than three in 10 (29%) Basotho said theyfelt safe walking alone at night in their area,reflecting the country’s severe problems withviolent crime. Lesotho has one of the highest
homicide rates in the world. In mid-2023, thecountry instituted a nationwide nighttime curfew
to curb violent crime.
Except for Myanmar, the countries in which
residents are least likely to say they feel safe
walking alone at night are exclusively a mix ofcountries in Latin America and the Caribbean
and sub-Saharan Africa — which tends to be thecase each year. Ecuador and South Africa are theonly countries that were also on the list in 2021.
Notably missing from the least safe list isAfghanistan, where a record-high 52% ofresidents in 2022 said they felt safe walking
alone at night where they live. Most of theincrease was attributable to more men
feeling safe (65%) — while 39% of womensaid the same.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Countries/Areas Where People
Feel Safest Walking Alone
COUNTRY / AREACountries/Areas Where People
Feel Least Safe Walking Alone% FEEL SAFE

COUNTRY / AREA

% FEEL SAFE

Kuwait96

The Gambia

38

Singapore

95

South Africa

37

Tajikistan

93

Zimbabwe

37

Norway91

Botswana

36

United Arab Emirates

91

Chile

36

Saudi Arabia

90

Ecuador35

Slovenia

90

Eswatini

34

Luxembourg

89

Liberia32

Finland88

Myanmar31

Hong Kong, S.A.R. of China

88

Lesotho

29

In most economically developed countries and territories with strong rule of law, high majorities ofresidents say they feel safe walking alone in their areas at night. The same is true in countries wherepopulations are under tighter state control. For example, these feelings were nearly universal in 2022
in countries such as Kuwait (96%), Singapore (95%), Tajikistan (93%), United Arab Emirates (91%) andSaudi Arabia (90%).
In 2022, the U.S. again was only slightly above the global average of 71%, with 73% of residents saying
they felt safe walking alone at night — the same as the previous year.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Confidence in the Local Police
No large losses overall, major gains in South Asia

Just over seven in 10 adults worldwide (72%) said in 2022 that they have confidence in their local police.
The results vary significantly by region, from a low of 52% in Latin America and the Caribbean to a high of
84% in Southeast Asia.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Percentage Confident in Police by RegionRegion

2019

2020

2021

2022

Change from2021 to 2022

Southeast Asia

81

78

82

84+2

Western Europe

83

8280

82+2

Northern America

80

8275

76+1South Asia

7377

74

80+6East Asia

7173

73

72-1Middle East and North Africa

71726969±0Eastern Europe

71666669+3Sub-Saharan Africa

60565960+1Post-Soviet Eurasia

53565659+3Latin America and the Caribbean

4949

5152+1The relatively low average on this measurein Latin America and the Caribbean is not
surprising given the region’s poor performanceon all of the Law and Order Index component
metrics in 2022 and in previous years. The 52%
in the region who were confident in 2022 is on
par with the previous year.

The improvements in South Asia largely reflect
rising confidence in India, where trust in thelocal police increased from 75% in 2021 to81% in 2022 amid calls for reform. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi recently called forpolice forces to be more sensitive and trained
in developing technology.

Confidence in local police did not decline
measurably in any region of the world in 2022,
but several regions experienced sizable upticks.
South Asia was home to the largest gains in
confidence in 2022 — rising six points from 74%
to 80% — although it did not lead the world on
this measure.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

72%

of adults have confidence
in their local police.

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Law and Order Index Scores for 2022
Country / Area

Law and Order
Index Score

Country / Area

Law and Order
Index Score

Tajikistan

96

Hong Kong, S.A.R. of China

87

Finland92

Netherlands

87

Iceland

92

United Arab Emirates

87

Kuwait92

Azerbaijan

86

Luxembourg

92

Czech Republic

86

Norway92

Ireland86

Vietnam

92Israel

86

Switzerland

91

Japan

86

Denmark

90

Montenegro

86

Indonesia

90

Philippines

86

Kosovo90

South Korea

86

Slovenia

90

France85

Uzbekistan

90

Jordan

85

Egypt

89

Malaysia

85

Germany89

Armenia

84

Portugal

89

Belgium

84

Saudi Arabia

89

El Salvador

84

Sweden89

Hungary

84

Taiwan, Province of China

89

Italy

84

Estonia88

Australia

83

Spain

88

Cambodia

83

Austria87

Canada83

Georgia87

Croatia83

13

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Country / Area

Law and OrderIndex Score

Country / Area

Law and Order
Index Score

Greece83

Algeria

79

Latvia83

Republic of Moldova

79

Malta

83

Pakistan

79

Poland83

Tanzania

79

United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Northern Ireland83

Iran78

United States of America

83

New Zealand

78

Bangladesh

82

Panama78

Bosnia and Herzegovina

82

Thailand

78

India

82

Cyprus

77

Iraq

82

Mali

77

Serbia82

Morocco77

Slovakia

82

North Macedonia

77

Kazakhstan

81

Sri Lanka

77

Kyrgyzstan

81

Afghanistan

76

Lao People's
Democratic Republic

Palestinian Territories

76

81

Russian Federation

76

Lithuania

81

Jamaica75

Mauritius81Nicaragua

74

Northern Cyprus

81

Puerto Rico

74

Türkiye81

Senegal74

Albania

80

Brazil73

Bulgaria

80

Costa Rica

73

Nepal

80

Lebanon73

Romania

80

Libya

73

14

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Country / Area

Law and Order
Index Score

Country / Area

Law and Order
Index Score

Mozambique

73

Zambia66

Uruguay73

Zimbabwe

66

Guatemala72

Malawi65

Tunisia

72

Côte d'Ivoire

71

The Democratic Republicof the Congo64

Ethiopia

71

The Dominican Republic

64Mongolia

71

Nigeria64

Paraguay

71

Botswana

63

Togo

71

Chad62

Yemen71

Eswatini

62

Argentina

70

Kenya

62

Benin

69

Lesotho

62

Ghana

69

Namibia62

Honduras69

Bolivia

61

Niger

69

Peru

61

Chile

67

Uganda60

Mauritania

67

Cameroon59

Colombia

66

Ecuador59

The Comoros

66

Gabon

59

Guinea66

South Africa

59

Madagascar

66

The Republic of the Congo

58

Mexico66

Sierra Leone

57

Myanmar66

The Gambia

56

Venezuela

66

Liberia49

15

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Global Law and Order | 2023

Methodology

Results are based on nationally representative,probability-based samples among the adult
populations, aged 15 and older, in 141 countries
and territories throughout 2022.
The 2022 results are based on telephone orface-to-face surveys of approximately 1,000 or
more respondents. The global estimate includes
2021 data from China.
For results based on the total sample of national
adults, the margin of sampling error ranges
from ±2.0 to ±5.5 percentage points at the 95%
confidence level.
The margin of error reflects the influence of dataweighting. In addition to sampling error, question
wording and practical difficulties in conducting
surveys can introduce error or bias into thefindings of public opinion polls.

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