Nearly half of South Africans are changing how they live to avoid crime, survey shows

Nearly half of South Africans reported taking steps to protect themselves against crime in 2025/26, with many changing daily routines and adding home security, according to Statistics South Africa’s latest Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey.

Who is changing how they live and how?

Statistics South Africa found that 46.6% of people had done something to protect themselves against crime in 2025/26, up from 43.3% a year earlier. The most common precaution was restricting when they walk outside, cited by 31.5% of those who took measures. The second most common action was installing physical security such as burglar doors, reported by 29.9% of precautions-takers.

Daytime safety versus after dark

Survey respondents were far more comfortable walking alone during the day than at night. About eight out of ten people aged 16 and older said they felt safe walking alone during the day, a slight dip from 81% in 2024/25. After dark, just 37.9% said they felt safe walking alone, though that figure rose from 36.1% a year earlier.

Regional differences

Limpopo residents reported the highest levels of safety, with almost all saying they felt safe walking alone during the day and more than two-thirds feeling safe after dark, Statistics South Africa said.

Victimisation and reporting

The survey measures households’ and individuals’ experiences of crime between April 2025 and March 2026, including incidents not reported to police. It found that housebreaking or burglary remained the most common household crime, with more than 1.5 million incidents affecting about 1.08 million households roughly 5.3% of households nationally.

Despite its prevalence, fewer than half of affected households reported housebreaking to police: only 48.2% reported some or all incidents.

At the individual level, theft of personal property was the most common crime experienced. About 1.2 million South Africans aged 16 and older experienced personal theft during 2025/26, with an estimated 1.4 million incidents. Only 37.3% of those victims reported some or all incidents to police.

Street robbery remained common but showed a small decline in estimated incidents, from 529,000 in 2024/25 to 515,000 in 2025/26. The share of street-robbery victims reporting to police rose from 36.4% to 41.7%, though most incidents still went unreported.

Assault and the role of weapons

Not all crime fell. The number of individuals who experienced assault increased from 363,000 in 2024/25 to 408,000 in 2025/26. Men experienced assault more often than women. Among female assault victims, almost a third said the perpetrator was a spouse or intimate partner, compared with 2.2% of male victims. Most victims reported that a weapon was used during the assault, with knives the most common weapon followed by sticks or clubs.

How the survey relates to police statistics

Statistics South Africa emphasised that its survey complements South African Police Service data because it captures incidents that are not reported to police and records people’s perceptions of safety. The latest survey highlighted a gap between some police-recorded declines in serious crimes and widespread public unease: fewer than four in 10 South Africans feel safe walking alone after dark, even as the survey period saw declines recorded by police in several categories.

SAPS figures for April to June showed declines in several serious crimes: murder fell 5.9% from 5,770 to 5,427 cases, carjackings declined from 4,657 to 3,811, and residential robberies dropped from 5,360 to 4,416. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia cautioned against seeing those falls as a solution to the country’s broader crime challenges, saying:

“These are the crimes that create fear in our communities. Many are committed by organised, heavily armed criminal groups that operate with planning and sophistication,”

and that others are interpersonal crimes reflecting deeper social challenges and broken trust in communities.

What the findings mean

The survey paints a picture of widespread protective behaviour from changing when people go outside to investing in physical home security driven by persistent fears about personal and household safety. It also underlines that a large share of crime is never reported to police, meaning official statistics and household experiences can tell different stories about the scale and nature of crime in South Africa.