Perception of Insecurity in Mexico Reached the Lowest Level on Record

ByArturo Sánchez Jiménez and Alonso Urrutia

This article by Arturo Sánchez Jiménez and Alonso Urrutia originally appeared in the October 23, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The perception of insecurity in the country’s cities reached its lowest level in September since the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) began conducting the National Survey of Urban Public Security (ENSU), 13 years ago: 58.1 percent of the population aged 18 and over considers it unsafe to live in their city, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo reported this Friday at her morning press conference at the National Palace.

The head of the Executive presented the data released by INEGI, according to which the indicator fell from 59.8 percent last June to 58.1 percent in September, a statistically significant reduction of 1.7 percentage points. A year ago, in September 2025, the proportion was 63 percent.

People feel safer. Said by INEGI, by a survey that has been conducted the same way for 13 years.

President Claudia Sheinbaum

The gender gap, she commented, persists: 64.2 percent of women said they feel unsafe in their city, compared to 50.6 percent of men. “Among women the perception of insecurity is higher. And there, well, we still have to keep working every day,” she acknowledged.

Sheinbaum Pardo congratulated the security cabinet, the secretariats of Security and Citizen Protection, of National Defense and of the Navy, as well as the National Guard and the Secretary of Governance, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, whose program of attention to the causes, she said, “also has to do with this perception.”

Asked whether, in addition to the six prisons whose construction she announced, the maximum security center in Papantla, Veracruz, would be considered, she explained that it was built during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto under the public-private partnership scheme, whose costs, she recalled, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador reduced practically by half.

Since the project is almost 90 percent complete, the government seeks to acquire it and finish it in order to operate it under a different scheme. To that end, she asked Raquel Buenrostro and the head of the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit to carry out an appraisal, review how much has been paid and hold talks with the construction company. “All in a totally transparent manner,” she assured.