National safety
Living peacefully and feeling safe
Released 15/09/2025
Metric
Proportion of Australians who feel safe or very safe based on views of world events
Why this matters
Global interconnectedness has amplified the impact of regional and global events on the individual and collective wellbeing of Australians. While Australians have significantly benefitted from globalisation, it has increased our vulnerability to shocks from world events, including conflict, pandemics, and economic recessions.
Progress
In 2025, 51% of people aged 18 years and over reported feeling safe or very safe based on views of world events, compared with a rate of 91% in 2005.
Since 2020, very low proportions of people have reported feeling very safe.
- In 2019, the Lowy Institute Poll transitioned from a telephone-based survey to a predominantly online-based survey. For more information, see the Lowy Institute Poll 2025 methodology.
Differences across groups
In 2025, the proportion of people who reported feeling safe or very safe based on views of world events was:
- 52% for males and 50% for females
- 51% for those with low income, 49% for those with middle income and 53% for those with high income
- 43% for people aged 60 years and over 50% for all other age groups.
Disaggregation
Further information on national safety is available from Lowy Institute Poll 2025 – ‘Feelings of safety’.
Disaggregation available includes:
- Age group
- Gender
- Remoteness
- Region
- Educational attainment
- Income
- Cultural and language diversity: Birthplace of person and of parents.
Please note that for the cultural and language diversity disaggregation, some of the data may be drawn from a sample of less than 100 respondents. When a small base is used, the margin of error may be very large and should not be used to draw general conclusions about this population.