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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The pandemic upended a lot of things in people's lives, but shows that so far, it hasn't fundamentally altered how safe most of the world feels or shaken people's faith in the rule of law.

The index itself is a composite score based on 优蜜传媒World Poll questions that ask people whether they are confident in their local police, feel safe in their neighborhoods, or were victims of theft or assault in the past year. Higher scores mean more people in a country feel secure.

Because of the pandemic, 优蜜传媒was unable to field its surveys in two countries that have scored the highest and lowest on the index year after year -- Singapore and Afghanistan. But Norway, which posted the highest score on the index in 2020 with a 94, consistently ranks near the top. Venezuela and Gabon, which posted the lowest scores on the index in 2020, at 53 each, also consistently rank near the bottom.

While data from Venezuela and Gabon are not yet available in 2021, the score for Norway in 2021 remains a high 93. Notably, the data in Norway were collected before the nation-shocking bow and arrow attack in October that claimed five people's lives.

For complete results for all 115 countries and areas surveyed in 2020, read Gallup's 2021 report.

Although the U.S. typically does not make the top 10 most secure countries in the world, it did fare better than the global average in 2020, with a Law and Order Index score of 87. The U.S. is in the company of Spain -- which also scored an 87 -- and its neighbor to the north, Canada, which scored an 86.

Most of the World Feels Safe, but Not Everyone Does

About seven in 10 people worldwide in 2020 said they feel safe walking alone at night where they live (72%), which is up slightly from the 69% who said so in 2019. But these overall numbers continue to mask scores that range from as high as 95% in the United Arab Emirates to as low as 31% in Venezuela and Gabon.

The countries in which residents are least likely to say they feel safe walking alone at night are exclusively a mix of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Six of them also ranked among the least safe in 2019 -- Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Namibia, South Africa, Gabon and Venezuela.

In most economically developed countries and territories with strong rule of law, high majorities of residents say they feel safe walking alone in their areas at night. The same is true in countries where populations are under tighter state control.

For example, these feelings were nearly universal in 2020 in countries such as the United Arab Emirates (95%), Norway (93%), China (91%) and Slovenia (91%). So far in 2021, Norwegians (93%) and UAE residents (92%) largely feel the same way.

In 2020, the U.S. was slightly above the global average at 78%, when Americans were interviewed during the heart of the pandemic lockdown in March through early May 2020. A year later, in 2021, slightly fewer Americans (73%) said they feel safe walking alone at night. This pattern follows the increases in Americans' fears about crime and safety in 2021.

Confidence in Police Edges Up

More than seven in 10 adults worldwide (71%) in 2020 said they have confidence in their local police, which is also up slightly from 69% in 2019. The results vary significantly by region, however, from a low of 49% in Latin America and the Caribbean to 82% in Western Europe and Northern America.

The relatively low average on this measure in Latin America and the Caribbean is not surprising, given the region's poor performance on all of the Law and Order Index component metrics in 2020 and in previous years. The 49% who were confident in 2020 is unchanged from the previous year, but it is also on the higher end for historical scores in the region.

	2019	2020	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Western Europe	83	82	-1
Northern America	80	82	+2
Southeast Asia	81	78	-3
South Asia	73	77	+4
East Asia	71	73	+2
Middle East and North Africa	71	72	+1
Eastern Europe	71	66	-5
Sub-Saharan Africa	60	56	-4
Commonwealth of Independent States	53	56	+3
Latin America and the Caribbean	49	49	0
Gallup

With rare exceptions, confidence in the police remained stable or improved across most of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020. Confidence plummeted 10 points in Bolivia, which was rocked by violent protests that virtually brought the country to a standstill. Confidence in police dropped from 45% in 2019 -- which was a record high -- to 35% the next year. In 2021, the situation is no better; 34% in Bolivia are confident in their local police.

	2019	2020	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Uruguay	66	75	+9
El Salvador	70	69	-1
Costa Rica	56	69	+13
Jamaica	51	62	+11
Ecuador	54	60	+6
Nicaragua	56	57	+1
Argentina	52	57	+5
Colombia	53	55	+2
Brazil	53	54	+1
Dominican Republic	48	53	+5
Chile	44	52	+8
Paraguay	55	48	-7
Peru	46	43	-3
Mexico	40	38	-2
Bolivia	45	35	-10
Venezuela	28	26	-2
Gallup

Implications

The United Nations' most recent progress report on its Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 concludes that, in the second full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, "the world is still a long way from achieving the goal of peaceful, just and inclusive societies." But for the world to keep moving forward, it will need to do so from a foundation of "peace, stability, respect for human rights, effective governance and the rule of law."

Gallup's latest global surveys on people's perceptions of their own security and faith in the rule of law were collected throughout the first full year of the pandemic, and through the first half of the second, providing a sense of where this foundation is stronger and weaker.

The results overall show that not much has changed over the past few years and there is still much room to grow. While the majority of people worldwide who feel safe can take comfort in that, nearly a third -- which translates into hundreds of millions of people worldwide -- do not feel safe walking alone at night where they live.

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