Fresnillo, Zacatecas, once again had the highest percentage of residents who told INEGI that the city was an unsafe place to live. The latest ENSU found that 95.4% of Fresnillo residents consider the city unsafe, a decline of 1 percentage point compared to the previous survey.
Located about 60 kilometers north of Zacatecas City, Fresnillo has been plagued by violent crime in recent years. The results of each of the four ENSUs conducted in 2023 showed that the city of some 240,000 people was considered unsafe by over 90% of residents.
According to the results of the latest National Survey of Urban Public Security, the percentage of Mexicans with security concerns about their city increased to 61% in the first quarter of 2024 from a 10-year low of 59.1% in the final quarter of last year.
Conducted by the national statistics agency INEGI in the first half of March, the ENSU found that 66.5% of women and 54.5% of men consider their city unsafe.
While the combined figure of 61% is up almost two points compared to the previous survey, it is 1.1 points below the 62.1% result of 12 months ago.
According to the survey, only one-third of respondents (34%) consider their municipal government to be very or somewhat effective in solving the most important problems their cities face.
INEGI conducts the ENSU every quarter in cities in all 31 states. Each of the 16 boroughs of Mexico City are considered separately.
The latest survey was conducted shortly after the commencement of the official campaign period ahead of the June 2 presidential election. Official data shows that homicides declined to their lowest level since 2016 last year, but violence remains a major problem in some parts of Mexico.
In March, all three presidential candidates endorsed a “Commitment for Peace” document drawn up by Mexico’s Roman Catholic leadership, although leading aspirant Claudia Sheinbaum also expressed disagreement with the Church leaders’ assessment of the current security situation and some of the peace-building proposals they put forth.
Source: National Survey of Urban Public Security
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