Nearly half of the respondents to a survey on social consciousness think public safety is getting worse, the government said Saturday.

When asked about what they think is getting worse in this country, 47.9 percent cited "public safety," up 8.4 percentage points from the previous survey conducted by the Cabinet Office in January 2004.

This figure outranked the 38.5 percent who cited "the economy," which dropped 7.0 points from the previous survey. This is the first time the economy has not been the No. 1 public concern since the government started including the question in 1998.