It's healthy to put your fears in perspective with real world risks. David Ropeik of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis can help.
Individual risk will vary. If you live in the desert, for example, and never go near the ocean, your risk of a shark attack would be less than 1 in 280 million.
Taken from David Ropeik's book with coauthor George Gray, Risk! A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You (Houghton Mifflin):
* The risk of being in a terror attack: Too small to calculate.
* Risk of a shark attack: 1 in 280 million.
* Getting sick from anthrax: 1 in 22 million.
* Dying in an airplane crash: 1 in 3 million.
* Losing your job: Average risk is 1 in 252.
* Getting shot by a sniper: 1 in 517,000.
* Being the victim of a home burglary at night: 1 in 181.
These are average risks, of course. In some areas your risk of being the target of crime is much higher. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one in 30 residents of Oakland had their car stolen in 2023.
Personal health risks are far higher than these events:
* Risk of cancer: 1 in 7.
* The risk of getting a food-borne illness or a sexually transmitted disease: 1 in 4.
* The risk of having heart problems or dying early because your are overweight: Also 1 in 4.
* Smokers have a 1 in 2 risk of death from tobacco-related illness.
