The perception of insecurity among Mexicans decreased slightly to 63% in the third quarter of 2025, a level higher than the 58.6% reported in the same period of 2024 and despite a 32% drop in homicides during the first year of Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency.
This means that more than six out of every 10 inhabitants over 18 years of age considered it unsafe to live in their city, according to the National Urban Public Safety Survey (ENSU) revealed by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
The result from July to September is just slightly lower than the 63.2% from April to June, but higher than the 61.9% from January to March and also exceeds the 59.1% from October to December 2023, when it reached its lowest level since records began, the autonomous institute noted in its report.
“The above represents a statistically significant change in relation to the percentage that was registered in September 2024 (58.6%); however, it does not represent a statistically significant change in relation to the percentage in June 2025 (63.2.%)”, Inegi detailed in its report.
The perception of insecurity has grown despite the fact that, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), the daily average of murders decreased to 59.5 in September compared to 86.9 in September 2024, the last month of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), which implies 27 fewer homicides per day.
According to data from the Mexican Government, homicides fell 32% in the first year of Sheinbaum’s presidency, a period in which more than 34,000 were arrested for high-impact crimes and more than 283 tons of drugs were confiscated.
The Inegi statistics exhibited a persistent gender gap, with 68.2% of women reporting insecurity compared to 56.7% of men.
The most unsafe cities in Mexico
The city with the highest perception of insecurity was Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa, where 88.3% of its inhabitants reported this feeling in the midst of the internal struggle of the Sinaloa Cartel, after the arrest in July 2024 of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, co-founder of the organization, in the United States.
They are followed by Irapuato (88.2%), Chilpancingo de los Bravo (86.3%), Ecatepec de Morelos (84.4.%) and Cuernavaca (84.2%).
In contrast, the least insecure city was San Pedro Garza García, the richest municipality in Mexico, where only 8.9% of the population reported insecurity.
They were followed by Piedras Negras (15%), the Benito Juárez mayor’s office of Mexico City (15.6%), Los Mochis (19.2%), and San Nicolás de los Garza (22.4%).
For public space and for crime
Regarding specific spaces, 71.7% of the population felt unsafe at ATMs, 64.9% on public transportation, 64.4% on the street, and 57.1% on the highway.
Citizens who reported having witnessed crimes near their home were related to alcohol consumption in the streets (58.2%), robberies or assaults (47.6%), sale or consumption of drugs (39.9%), vandalism in homes or businesses (38.1%) and shooting of weapons (34.8%).
With information from EFE.
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