Is Mexico Safe to Live In? What Locals Actually Say

The relocation guides cite one survey: nine in ten expats feel safe in Mexico. Mexican-language sources cite a different one: six in ten Mexicans call their own city unsafe. Both numbers are real.

July 2026 · Researched via local Spanish and Portuguese internet sources using LikeLoc · 30 Mexican sources · 30 Brazilian sources

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Search "is Mexico safe to live in" and the relocation blogs converge on a single data point: the Mexico News Daily Expat Safety Perception Index, which found the average foreign resident rates their daily safety 88.97 out of 100, and that 63.71% of expats feel safer in Mexico than they did back home. Nine in ten call themselves safe. It's a real survey, and every English-language guide leans on it.

I searched "how safe everyday life feels for residents" in Español through local Mexican sources — and the expat number turns out to be one survey among many, most of which are measuring something else entirely.

Foreign residents rate their safety 88.97/100. Mexico's own statistics agency says 59.8% of Mexicans feel unsafe in the city they live in. Same country, same year, opposite conclusion.

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Mexico

The expat survey and the national survey are asking different questions

Both figures Mexican-language sources return are accurate, and neither is fake. The gap is in the question. The expat index polled long-term foreign residents — over half had lived in Mexico at least six years, and more than three-quarters were over 60 — about whether their specific neighborhood felt safer than the specific place they'd left. Most said yes, often because they'd left a more expensive, more anonymous city behind and landed somewhere they could afford a gated community or a walkable small town.

INEGI, Mexico's national statistics agency, asked a broader population a broader question — do you feel unsafe living in your city — and got 59.8% saying yes in the second quarter of 2026, per local reporting. That's actually a three-point improvement on the prior quarter, which Mexican outlets reported as good news; it is still six in ten residents. Local sources add texture the expat survey doesn't capture: women report markedly higher insecurity than men, especially in public space and after dark, and researchers tie the feeling directly to neighborhood upkeep — deteriorated public space and lower household income both independently raise how unsafe someone reports feeling, regardless of the actual local crime rate. Trust in institutions compounds it: only 53% of Mexicans say they trust the federal government, per the same local coverage, which local sources connect directly to why "the police could do more" is a near-universal refrain even in areas foreigners describe as calm.

None of this contradicts the expat number — a retiree in a walkable colonial town with private security genuinely can feel an 89-out-of-100 safe, and mean it. It does mean that number describes a specific, self-selected slice of life in Mexico, not the everyday experience the majority of the country is having, and Mexican-language sources are the ones drawing that line. For the fuller local picture, what locals in Mexico say about everyday safety goes deeper than either single survey, and pairs well with the real cost of living Mexican residents report before treating one Facebook-group anecdote or one index as the whole picture.

→ Explore the live Mexico search on LikeLoc

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Brazil's version of the same gap

Brazil's local-language safety conversation carries no equivalent "expats feel great" counterweight — Portuguese-language sources are more uniformly bleak than Mexico's. A Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública / Datafolha study finds 57% of Brazilians changed their daily routine in the past year out of fear of violence: 36.5% now avoid their usual route, 35.6% stopped going out at night, and 33.5% stopped carrying a phone in the street. A separate regional poll (Latam Pulse) puts it starkest: 92% of Brazilians believe organized crime controls parts of the political and justice system, and a quarter say they've seriously considered emigrating to a safer country. Safety ranks as residents' single biggest complaint about the cities they live in, ahead of even traffic, per a DataZAP survey of nearly 1,000 people.

→ Explore the live Brazil search on LikeLoc

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The relocation takeaway

An expat safety survey and a national safety survey can both be true and still describe two different countries. Mexico's foreign-resident index is real, and so is the fact that six in ten Mexicans call their own city unsafe — the first measures a curated, often-affluent relocation experience; the second measures what the median resident actually lives with, and it's the one shaping local-language news, policy debate, and household behavior day to day. Brazil shows what it looks like when that second number has no expat-survey counterweight at all: a majority calling safety their top concern, with no local outlet publishing an equivalent "residents feel great" headline to balance it.

For anyone actually relocating, the honest read is: the expat survey tells you what your specific, chosen neighborhood might feel like once you've picked it well. It does not tell you what safety feels like for the country you're moving to — only local-language sources, read alongside the survey English guides quote, do that.

Selected sources

• Nueve de cada diez residentes extranjeros en México se sienten seguros en el país: encuesta — "Nine out of ten foreign residents in Mexico feel safe in the country: survey" (La Crónica de Hoy, covering the Mexico News Daily expat safety index)
• México mejora su imagen de seguridad entre extranjeros residentes: esto es lo que opinan — "Mexico improves its safety image among foreign residents: here's what they say" (ejecentral, on the same expat index)
• Inegi: Baja al 59.8% la percepción de inseguridad en México en el segundo trimestre de 2026 — "INEGI: Perception of insecurity in Mexico falls to 59.8% in Q2 2026" (Yucatán.com.mx, citing Mexico's national statistics agency)
• La frágil confianza ciudadana en México: sólo el 53% cree en el gobierno federal — "Fragile citizen trust in Mexico: only 53% believe in the federal government" (Excélsior)
• 41,2% dos brasileiros dizem conviver com o crime organizado — "41.2% of Brazilians say they live alongside organized crime" (Poder360, on the Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública / Datafolha study)
• Segurança é a maior preocupação dos brasileiros nas cidades que residem — "Safety is Brazilians' biggest concern in the cities they live in" (CNN Brasil, citing a DataZAP survey)
• Percepção de criminalidade é mais presente no Brasil e no Peru — "Perception of crime is more present in Brazil and Peru" (Poder360, on the Latam Pulse regional survey)
• Pesquisa do IREE mostra percepção do brasileiro sobre a Segurança Pública no Brasil — "IREE survey shows Brazilians' perception of public safety in Brazil" (Instituto de Registro e Estudos Empresariais)