People’s views about their local area (National Survey for Wales): April 2012 to March 2013

Key findings

The majority of people feel safe in the different situations asked about. Feelings of safety and belonging vary according to where people live, their attitudes and their characteristics.

• People in more urban areas were generally more likely to feel unsafe and to feel that they did not belong to the local area.
• People were most likely to feel unsafe when walking in the nearest town or city after dark, and this tended to be females, older people and those with negative views of the area.
• People were much less likely to feel unsafe at home, but those who did were more likely to have poor health and to be younger.
• Feeling dissatisfied with the local area was an important predictor of feeling unsafe in a variety of situations, suggesting that the psychology of feeling unsafe is a key predictor.
• People in urban areas were most likely to feel that they did not belong to the local area.
• The strongest predictor of lacking a sense of belonging was feeling very dissatisfied with the local area.
• Lacking feelings of neighbourliness was another strong predictor of a person feeling that they did not belong to an area.