The News

Study Finds Vast Majority of Mexicans Feel Unsafe in Their City

Results from a national poll by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) indicate that 69.9 percent of Mexicans over the age of 18 feel that living in their city is unsafe.

After the murder of Temixco mayor Gisela Mota Ocampo, officials bemoaned “the violent facts that hurt and look to sow anxiety in our state.” According to a recent survey, that’s already happened. Photo: Notimex

The place where residents feel most ill at ease? When they’re taking money out of the ATM, where a full 80 percent responded to survey takers they felt unsafe.

Perhaps predictably, respondents said that they felt the most secure at home, although 20 percent still indicated that they felt unsafe in their own residence.

These results are far from new. In fact, the overall insecurity percentage only rose .2 percent compared to the same study’s findings in March 2015.

The cities reporting the highest levels of insecurity were Villahermosa (89.7 percent), the northern section of the Mexico City metropolitan area (87.4) and Acapulco (85.8). The most secure-feeling cities were Tepic (30), Campeche (43.2) and Mérida (44.5).