Most of the World Remains Confident in Police, Feels Safe

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While "law and order" may be one of the issues on the ballot next week in the U.S. election, Gallup's latest update on its global Law and Order Index shows that in 2019, people in the U.S. and in many places around the globe largely felt secure.

The Law and Order Index is a composite score based on people's reported confidence in their local police, their feelings of personal safety, and the incidence of theft and assault or mugging in the past year. The higher the score, the higher the proportion of the population that reports feeling secure. The index score for the world in 2019 was 82 out of a possible 100 -- essentially unchanged from the previous year. Ninety countries posted scores lower than this average.