Alastair Johnson moved to Spain in 2014. He says it’s far safer than the UK
An expat has said he and his family made the move to Spain after feeling unsafe in Britain as a result of its crime rates.
Looking back at his time living in the UK just over a decade ago, Alastair Johnson, 53, clearly recalls seeing fights break out spontaneously in the street.
They were “fairly common, especially at 11pm,” he told The i Paper. One night, he said, just as a pub was closing in central London, he tried breaking up one of those brawls. Instead of being thanked for his efforts, he found himself on the receiving end of a punch.
Originally from South Africa, Johnson has since sought safety – and the sun – in Sitges, southeastern Spain. The seaside town, nestled between the Catalonian mountains and the Mediterranean sea, is just an half-hour train ride from Barcelona.
“In all my nights out in Spain, I have only seen one fight, and that was a group of very drunk tourists kicking off outside a nightclub,” Johnson said.
He left his native Makhanda (Grahamstown) for London at 22, where he lived for seven years and met and married his wife Alison, 53, before they relocated to Sydney. Seeking another change, the couple and their son, Sam, moved to Spain in 2014, considering it “an easy choice” having visited several times in the 1990s.
After settling happily in the country, the couple set up Moving to Spain, offering support and advice to other foreigners looking to relocate to the Mediterranean country.
The company has carried out research that suggests Spain is safer than the UK, making it an ideal spot for retirees and digital nomads.
“The murder rate is 38 per cent higher in the UK than in Spain,” Mr Johnson said. “Also, Spain rates higher than the UK on social cohesion, and this really lines up with our expat views.
“Our experience of living in Spain and the conversations we have with locals and expats is that Spain is a very safe place to live, but we wanted to conduct a deeper analysis to find out if the data supports this anecdotal evidence.”
They drew upon government statistics, crowd-sourced data and reports from reputable foundations to give Spain, the UK and US safety scores across 10 categories, ranging from crime and personal safety to natural disasters.
Each category was weighted according to the priorities of the company’s clients and other expats living in Spain. This was then used to give the countries overall safety scores out of 10.
Spain came out on top with 7.61, followed by the UK on 7.29, with the US lagging behind on 5.79. For crime and personal safety, his company awarded Spain a safety score of nine, compared with only five for the UK, while for intentional homicide rates, Spain was again rated nine, with the UK on eight – ahead of the US on five.
Although Spain is not perfect, with petty crimes and pickpocketing not uncommon, Mr Johnson said, the “big difference” is that “violent crimes or assaults are almost unheard of”.
The UK also lags behind Spain in areas such as healthcare, health outcomes and social welfare, according to the research. However, it did perform better than Spain in its readiness for wildfires, floods and droughts.
The report ranks Spain as one of the safest countries in Europe – which is reflected in official data released by the European Union and Spanish authorities.
In 2022, for every 1,000 people in Spain, around 49 people had committed a crime, according to the country’s interior ministry, compared with 80 in every 1,000 in the UK, 61 in Germany and 54 in Denmark.
Mr Johnson believes that high levels of social inclusion and lower income inequality compared with the UK are partly to thank for the relative feeling of safety.
“In Spain, there is a real community feel and multigenerational families are always part of society,” he said.
He adds: “Our research shows that expats who make some effort to be a part of Spanish society are welcomed and included.”
The family have travelled back to the UK many times in the past years, giving them the opportunity to view the safety differences first-hand.
“We did see a horrifying brawl in Brighton when we were there for a conference a few years ago,” Mr Johnson said.
He also claimed that road rage incidents “still seem fairly common in the UK, and that isn’t something I have experienced in Spain”.
Living in Sitges, Mr Johnson said he worries much less about his son, now 17, than he would be if his family had stayed in the UK.
“We have no worries about our teenage son catching the last train home from Barcelona,” he added, “and Alison is always happy to walk home on her own at the end of a night out in town.”
