ENUSC 2025: Data to Understand Victimization and Guide Public Safety in Chile
The survey provides national, regional, and local data on crime, reporting of crimes, harassment, anti-social behavior, the presence of weapons, drug trafficking, and perceptions of insecurity.
Measuring victimization is not simply a matter of producing a single rate. It means understanding what is happening, whom it affects, where it is concentrated, which incidents are reported, and what environmental conditions influence the way people experience and perceive safety.
Chile’s National Institute of Statistics and the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention of the Ministry of Public Security published the results of the 2025 National Urban Public Safety Survey (ENUSC). Now in its twenty-second edition, the ENUSC provides public institutions, academia, civil society, and the general public with a broad evidence base for understanding public safety from various perspectives.
A Survey to Examine Regions and Differences
The ENUSC 2025 surveyed residents of 55,796 households and generates national, regional, and urban municipal estimates for 136 municipalities. This coverage allows for an analysis that goes beyond national averages to examine how crime , victimization, reporting, and perceptions of insecurity vary across regions and population groups
Along with the results, the INE and the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention published the microdata, methodological documentation, an assessment of the statistical process’s quality, and materials to facilitate access to and use of the information. The survey applies criteria to determine the reliability of the estimates and identify which differences between periods and groups are statistically significant.
Victimization is not a single phenomenon
The results show why it is necessary to analyze the information at different levels of detail. In 2025, 7.9% of households were victims of violent crimes. However, when considering all crimes surveyed—including robberies, threats, fraud, scams, extortion, cybercrimes, and vandalism—victimization reached 37.7% of households.
The survey also allows us to distinguish different patterns: while nonviolent robberies affected 13.1% of households, economic crimes affected 11.8%. Rather than offering a single interpretation of security trends, these indicators help identify which phenomena require specific analysis and responses.
The data help identify who faces the greatest risks
The ability to disaggregate the information by sex, age, and socioeconomic status helps highlight differences that averages may obscure.
In 2025, 10% of those interviewed reported experiencing some form of harassment. The prevalence was 16.6% among women, compared to 3% among men, and reached 21.6% among people aged 15 to 29. These results help identify a risk profile that is particularly concentrated among young women and provide evidence to guide measures for prevention, protection, and recovery in public and digital spaces.
From the Crime Itself to the Institutional Response
The ENUSC also allows for an analysis of what happens after victimization. 37.4% of households victimized by any of the crimes surveyed filed a report, while among households affected by violent crimes, the proportion was 41.3%.
Differences by crime type require tailored interventions. In the most recent instance of violent victimization, the reporting rate reached 97.6% for violent vehicle thefts, 51.3% for violent extortion, and 47.4% for robberies involving violence or intimidation. This information helps identify where there is greater engagement with institutions and where barriers to reporting may persist.
Safety is also shaped by what happens in neighborhoods
The survey expands the analysis to include the conditions surrounding victimization. It measures disorder, illegal trade, abandoned sites, shootings, street fights, vandalism, the presence of firearms, and drug trafficking.
In 2025, 38.5% of respondents reported frequently observing alcohol or drug use in public spaces; 32.9% reported seeing fireworks being set off; and 30.2% reported seeing vacant lots, neglected areas, or places with accumulated trash. Likewise, 8.8% reported always observing drug trafficking in their neighborhood, and 2.2% reported seeing people with firearms. These indicators allow us to link individual experiences to local conditions, which can guide coordinated local interventions.
Where does the perception of insecurity come from?
The ENUSC survey not only asks what people perceive but also what sources influence that perception.
Television was the main source of information about the rise in crime in the country, at 53.4%. For perceptions regarding the municipality, social media ranked first, at 45.6%. At the neighborhood level, experiences shared by family members and others were the main source, at 50.6%.
This difference shows that perceptions of insecurity are shaped differently depending on the territorial scale: national media influence perceptions at the national level, social media at the municipal level, and close relationships at the neighborhood level.
Information Available for Further Analysis
The value of the ENUSC 2025 lies not only in its main findings but also in the ability to combine data on crime, geographic areas, individual characteristics, reporting of crimes, perceptions, and information about the local environment.
Its national, regional, and municipal coverage, along with the publication of microdata and methodological documentation, enables institutions to:
identify areas and groups that require targeted interventions;
analyze differences between victimization, perception, and reporting;
study emerging phenomena and environmental conditions;
track results over time;
develop new analyses based on official and verifiable information.
A Relevant Experience for the Region
The UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence disseminates the results and outputs of the ENUSC 2025 as part of its work to strengthen knowledge and the use of victimization surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Chile’s experience shows that a victimization survey can serve not only as a measurement tool but also as a public information infrastructure to connect citizens’ experiences with national, regional, and local decisions.
Explore and use the ENUSC 2025
View national, regional, and local results; review the methodological documentation and quality assessment; and access the microdata to generate new analyses on victimization and public safety in Chile.