The average level of worry about walking alone at night since 1965 is 38%. This year’s 30% worry level matches the previous low reading in October 2001. At that time, about a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Americans may have felt safer from conventional crime and a bit more positive about local public safety efforts, or perhaps less willing to admit fear.

Americans were most likely to express worry about walking alone at night from 1972 to 1993 — when 40% or more of U.S. adults consistently said they were worried, including the 48% high point in 1982. Concern began to fade in the mid-1990s and has not exceeded 40% since 1993. The drop in worry about walking alone since the early 1990s is coincident with national crime statistics indicating that U.S. crime rates have fallen since the early 1990s.