Are Your Neighbors Locking Their Doors? This Survey Tells All

updated Oct 4, 2023
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Growing up in a city, everyone I knew locked their door. Granted, we all hid keys in easy to find places like the doormat right in front of the locked door, but we locked them nevertheless. Turns out, not every region of the country locks their doors equally. A new survey from Safehome.org looks at the door locking habits of folks across the country.

(Image credit: SafeHome)

While they have a reputation for being easy-going and welcoming, turns out Southerners draw the line at letting you just waltz on into their homes. According to the survey, 81% of them lock their doors. Given that the South is the burglary capital of the US, it makes sense that they would be more careful to lock up. Folks in the Northwest and Alaska are the most trusting (or love playing robbery roulette), with only 54% of those surveyed locking their doors.

Apartment dwellers are more likely to lock their doors compared to people living in other housing types, and 83% of people surveyed said that they were more likely to lock their doors if they didn’t know their neighbors.

In this age of social media check-ins, burglars are able to tell when people are away from their homes without doing too much IRL monitoring. And for those homes burglars do target, just under 30% are accessed by simply entering an unlocked door.

h/t Clever

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