Americans are buying into the nationwide crime decline, with peoples’ perception about the state of crime at its most favorable level in more than two decades, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.
The annual survey found that less than half of respondents (49%) described crime as a major problem, and an equal number said they saw more crime in the past year.
Gallup said both of those numbers are the lowest since 2018, and are on par with where the country was in the early 2000s.
Republicans and independents are driving the improved perceptions about crime.
Only 49% of independents said crime was increasing this year, compared to 68% who said crime was on the rise in 2024. Republicans, meanwhile, saw a dramatic shift — 90% said crime was going up last year, but a mere 54% answered similarly for the 2025 survey.
Democrats cut against the grain in their responses. While 29% said crime was going up in 2024, that number jumped to 46% for this year’s poll.
Gallup pointed out how voters typically flip their perceptions on public safety when a president from the opposing party takes control of the White House.
Republicans were still more likely to describe the problem of crime in the country as an “extremely/very” serious issue (69%), although the number who said so was down from 2023 and 2024 when 78% of conservatives said the crime problem was very serious.
Other groups of respondents — both men and women, people of all income levels, and those living in urban, rural and suburban areas — all had fewer people call crime an extremely serious problem.
Additionally, the public said their neighborhood is safer today than it was a year ago. Only 30% of Americans said their community had become more dangerous in 2025, as opposed to 49% who said the same thing in 2024.
The findings jibe with the FBI’s national crime report, which showed violent crime fell more than 4% across the country in 2024.
Big city leaders, who are predominantly Democrats, have celebrated local initiatives to lower crime, but President Trump has pushed for National Guard deployments in cities such as Chicago and Portland, Oregon, to further stamp out violence and disorder.
Mr. Trump’s 30-day crime emergency in the District, where the president has control over the National Guard, saw killings, muggings and carjackings plummet this summer.
The Gallup survey found that fewer people are scared of being a victim of a violent crime, such as a deadly shooting, car theft, sexual assault or home burglary.
It also found that there is less apprehension about walking home at night in 2025, with 31% saying they were fearful. In 2023, 40% said that they were afraid to take a stroll after dark, which was the highest share of respondents since 1993.
Gallup conducted its telephone survey with 1,000 adults in all 50 states and in the District between Oct. 1-16
