93% of women in 2021-2022 felt safe walking alone at night, compared to 99% of men.

85% of women felt safe walking alone in their local area, compared to 94% of men.

In 2016, 90% of women felt safe walking alone at night, compared to 97% of men.

80% of women felt safe walking alone in their local area, compared to 93% of men.

(ABS, 2023).

The Personal Safety Survey 2019-2022 did not collect data on perceived safety at the LGA level. However, we can extrapolate using data from the 2011 and 2015 iterations of the survey.

The data showed that across the SMR, females in the SMR were consistently less likely than males to report lower perceptions of safety.

Greater Dandenong, Casey, and Frankston demonstrated the lowest proportions with fewer than 40% of females feeling safe to walk alone at night. However, Greater Dandenong also had the smallest difference between the proportions of females and males who felt safe walking alone at night with only 45.6% of males reporting perceived safety.

Such data clearly articulates the lack of safety felt amongst the majority of women in a majority of municipalities within the SMR (ABS, 2023).