75% of people feel (almost) always safe in their neighbourhood

Three quarters of people in Belgium say they feel almost always safe in their neighbourhood, according to a major survey by federal police into the public's perception of crime.

The poll of 168,000 people found 4.7% of men and 6.7% of women felt often or always unsafe where they live. Young people aged 15-24 were more likely to feel unsafe (6.8%) than over-65s (5.4%).

Asked to name the biggest crime concerns in their neighbourhood, the most common was speeding vehicles, which two-thirds of people said was a problem in their area.

The next were illegal rubbish dumping, aggressive driving, bad parking and the risk of burglary.

The crimes that worried people the least were pickpocketing, unwelcome approaches by strangers and street fighting.

The number of actual crimes recorded by police in Belgium was broadly the same in 2018 as in the previous year, according to the federal police study, at 879,000.

A notable increase was in computer-related crime, with the number of reported cases of phishing trebling since 2007.