Edinburgh is the United Kingdom’s safest city to live in, according to a new poll of over 2,000 British citizens.
It revealed that 82 per cent of those living in Edinburgh felt safe, with fewer than one in ten residents admitting to having been a victim of crime – a number which rises to one in four for the whole of the UK.
Glasgow ranked 10th according to the survey, while London and Manchester fell at 14th and 7th place respectively.
Police Scotland statistics for Edinburgh showed a 24 per cent decline in total recorded crimes between 2011 and 2020/21.
June 2021 figures similarly revealed a nine per cent year-on-year decrease in reported crimes from 2020.
However, 3,720 sexual crimes were reported in April-June 2021 following the relaxing of COVID restrictions – a 25 per cent increase on 2020 figures for the same period.
One second year student at the University of Edinburgh remarked that:
“As a girl, I never feel completely safe in any city.
“Obviously, Edinburgh is better than some others but there are lots of things I would never feel comfortable doing alone, like walking through the Meadows alone at night. I have friends who make sure they’re on the phone to one of their male friends whenever they’re walking anywhere at night.”
Another female student claimed to have heard of at least 50 anecdotes of spiking at nightclubs during Welcome Week alone.
She told The Student:
“I think the easing of restrictions has really reminded a lot of female students how scary it is to be a young woman at night, even in a supposedly ‘safe’ city like Edinburgh.”
An investigation by The Student in March 2020, shortly after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, found that 66.3 per cent of women surveyed did not feel safe walking alone at night in central Edinburgh.
One student said at the time:
“I live near the meadows and have heard from multiple female friends that they’ve been followed there. I don’t walk through the meadows alone at night now – it doesn’t feel safe.”
Image: Store norske leksikon