Risk of death from shark attack
Bottom line
The risk of dying from a shark attack anywhere in the world in 2004 was 1 in 913,200,766. You are 93 times more likely to be killed by contact with a hot water tap than in a shark attack.
Data sources
ISAF Statistics for the Worldwide Locations with the Highest Shark Attack Activity Since 1990 (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/statsw.htm)
US Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/)
National Safety Council (http://www.nsc.org/research/odds.aspx)
What the sources tell us
- The total number of fatal shark attacks across the world in 2004 was 7.
- The world population in 2004 was 6,392,405,362.
- The total number of deaths from contact with a hot water tap in the US in 2004 was 30.
- The US population in 2004 was 293,191,511.
Give us the odds
- The risk of dying from a shark attack anywhere in the world in 2004 was 1 in 913,200,766.
- The risk of dying from contact with a hot water tap in the US in 2004 was 1 in 9,773,050.
- Therefore the odds of dying from contact with a hot water tap are 93 times greater than those of dying in a shark attack.
Therefore the odds of dying from contact with a hot water tap are 93 times greater than those of dying in a shark attack.
Annual risk of death from shark attack
Risk Communication Tool (c) John Paling 2000 (www.riskcomm.com)
Comment
Of course, for the majority of people who do not spend much time swimming in shark inhabited waters the risk of death from shark attack is an overestimate so the difference would be even greater. As one Australian correspondent once pointed out, there are very few shark attacks in Alice Springs.