Your Odds Of Dying In A Shark Attack (And Other Accidental Death Stats)

Posted by Mike Richard on August 13, 2007
Filed under: Diving

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I plan on diving as much as humanly possible while I’m away. Sometimes I even like to sit on my couch and play Scuba Steve in full dive gear while staring longingly at reruns of Globe Trekker: Sri Lanka & the Maldives.

But I digress …

Many travelers harbor irrational fears that affect their journeys and the risks they take. For travelers with a penchant for diving, many fear sharks. In our dive class, our instructors and divemasters underscored how unlikely it is that we’d ever be the victim of a shark attack.

Shark Attacks Kayak

Feeling a bit curious today, I decided to find out just how unlikely. Finding worldwide shark attack statistics was easy, however the only comprehensive list of “cause of death” stats I could find was from 2003 and specific to the United States. No matter though because the comparison only reinforces what our instructors told us.

To put things in perspective, I’ve compared fatal shark attacks worldwide to other, what I would consider, rather bizarre ways to die. In increasing order of likelihood:

Cause of Death Total Number
Shark Attack 4 (out of 57 total attacks)
Contact with hot tap-water 26
Lightning 47
Contact with hornets, wasps and bees 66
Intentional self-poisoning 5,462

“Contact with hot tap-water”? So I’m more likely to be, not just maimed, but actually killed by my hot water faucet at home than dying in a shark attack?

I think it’s fair to say that death by shark is a bit of an irrational fear, no?

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Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.



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Comments

Veery
August 15th, 2007 - 5:22 pm

Great post! Irrational fears can control your life if you let them. Way to put things in perspective!


mike
August 16th, 2007 - 12:56 pm

it’s funny, after 9/11 sharks seem to have stopped attacking people, at least as far as the news media is concerned. for the whole summer that year it seemed as though the beaches were just giant all-you-can-eat-buffets for sharks.


Slacer
August 16th, 2007 - 1:32 pm

I would be much more interested in the percentages than the actual numbers

if everyone had access to hot water everyday, then 26/6,000,000,000 isn’t a whole lot - and then you would have to multiply the number by the amount of times during the day you came in contact.

I know it’s stupid to think people die from hot water (it really is) but I’m just putting this out there


natalie
February 19th, 2008 - 8:40 am

that would be the scariens thing in the world if i was him i would jumped into the sharks mouth love yayayayay


porkchop
March 7th, 2008 - 12:01 pm

scary but at least i would have a stry to tell!if you are agreeing with me say “i”


james
March 19th, 2008 - 10:02 am

but the percentage of people that swin in the sea is low. The percentage of attacks compared with the numbers that regularly swin in shark infested waters would be a more interesting statistic


lawrence
April 1st, 2008 - 6:45 am

i’m not fully convinced because the rest of the deaths are all land based, shark attacks are in the ocean & yeah i’m too tired too write anything else


Stymied1
May 2nd, 2008 - 2:00 am

So you’re saying there’s a chance…


NathanNicole
May 3rd, 2008 - 7:55 am

did he die man i would poo my pants if that was me


Jeremy
September 15th, 2008 - 2:57 am

irrational fear ? well .. yes and no .. you are more likely to be killed by hot tap water, yeah.. but your chances of coming into contact with hot tap water are far greater than ever meeting a shark.

I’d say your chances would increase ( at least above the tap water threshold ) the more time you spend in the ocean. ( and especially if it were New Smyrna Beach in FL )