Shark Attack - Statistics

Statistics

According to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), between 1580 and 2011 there were 2,463 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks around the world, of which 471 were fatal.

Although Australia is ranked the second highest in terms of global shark attacks with 877 attacks, it is ranked the highest in terms of shark fatalities, with 217 fatalities. The United States had the most shark attacks in 2001, with 29 out of the 75 reported around the world, but had no fatalities. In 2000, there were 79 shark attacks reported worldwide, 11 of them fatal. In 2005 and 2006 this number decreased to 61 and 62 respectively, while the number of fatalities dropped to only four per year. Of these attacks, the majority occurred in the United States (53 in 2000, 40 in 2005, and 39 in 2006). The New York Times reported in July 2008 that there had been only one fatal attack in the previous year. On average, there are 16 shark attacks per year in the United States with one fatality every two years. Despite these reports, however, the actual number of fatal shark attacks worldwide remains uncertain. For the majority of Third World coastal nations, there exists no method of reporting suspected shark attacks; therefore, losses and fatalities at near-shore or sea there often remain unsolved or unpublicized.

Australia has the highest amount of fatal shark attacks in the world with Western Australia recently becoming the deadliest place in the world for shark attacks. Australia and South Africa's fatality rate for shark attacks is approximately 30 percent. The United States has the highest reported amount of shark attacks but has the lowest fatality rate with around 4 percent of those attacked dying. The United States has had a total of 1,085 attacks (44 fatal) during the past 342 years (1670–2012). According to the ISAF, the states in the U.S. where the most attacks have occurred in are Florida, Hawaii, California, Texas, and the Carolinas, though attacks have occurred in almost every coastal state. South Africa has a high number of shark attacks along with a high fatality rate of 27 percent.

The location with the most recorded shark attacks is New Smyrna Beach, Florida. First world nations such as the United States, Australia, both high income countries, and to some extent South Africa, an upper middle income country, facilitate more thorough documentation of shark attacks on humans than poorer coastal countries.

The Florida Museum of Natural History compares these statistics with the much higher rate of deaths from other, less feared causes. For example, an average of more than 38 people die annually from lightning strikes in coastal states, while less than 1 person per year is killed by a shark. In comparison, 100 million sharks are killed every year by humans.

Even considering only people who go to beaches, a person's chance of getting attacked by a shark in the United States is 1 in 11.5 million, and a person's chance of getting killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million. In the United States, the annual number of people who drown is 3,306, whereas the annual number of shark fatalities is 1.