There is something about sharks. Of all the massive, deadly, fascinating creatures that roam our planet, sharks stand out for how much they capture our imaginations and trigger our fears. There’s no Bear Week or Snake Week or Elephant Week. There’s only Shark Week.
There’s good eason for that. Sharks are remarkable animals. They’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years and have survived five mass extinction events. Their surprise attack hunting tactics and cold, expressionless faces make them ideal fodder for cinematic horror stories.
It’s no surprise, then, that a majority of Americans have a significant fear of sharks. In a recent poll by Chapman University, more people said they are afraid of sharks than said the same about earthquakes, hurricanes and even murder.
Sharks do kill people, but the number of fatal attacks is much smaller than you might think. Only four people died from shark bites last year, according to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a database of shark encounters maintained by researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History for decades. Not all shark bites are deadly, of course. There were 47 unprovoked shark bites worldwide in 2024.
Only one person in the U.S. was killed by a shark last year, an experienced surfer and lifeguard who died after being attacked while surfing in Hawaii last summer. But a majority of the world’s sharks bites (60%) in 2024 occurred in U.S. waters. That’s consistent with long-term trends. The United States consistently sees more shark bites than any other country.
The researchers with the ISAF have tracked shark attacks all the way back to the 16th century. According to their database, there have been nearly 1,700 recorded shark attacks in the U.S. since the 1500s, more than double the number in any other nation and just under half of the total attacks worldwide. When it comes to deadly shark bites, though, the U.S. falls well behind Australia, which has seen more than 250 fatal attacks in its history.
Why does the U.S. have so many shark attacks?
The answer is more about circumstances than anything else. To put it simply, the U.S. has a whole lot of places where humans can come into contact with sharks and a whole lot of people for sharks to bite.
The U.S. has nearly 100,000 miles of coastline (almost 70,000 if you don’t include Alaska). Only a few countries have more and some of those, like Canada and Russia, bump up against frigid Arctic seas where you won’t find many humans or sharks in the water. The U.S. also has a much larger population than other countries with large coastlines, which leads to many more opportunities for sharks and humans to come into contact. It’s estimated that there are 3.4 billion trips made to American beaches every year. That’s more than 100 times as many as Australia, the place with the second-largest number of shark attacks all time.
Finally, the oceans surrounding the U.S. happen to be part of the habitat of the “big three” sharks (great whites, tiger sharks and bull sharks) that are blamed for most deadly attacks.
America’s shark bite capital
Shark bites aren’t distributed evenly across the U.S. either. While California, Hawaii and the Carolinas see their share, Florida is unquestionably America’s shark-attack capital.
Half of all shark bites in the U.S. last year — more than a quarter of all bites worldwide — occurred in the Sunshine State. Over the past two centuries, Florida has seen four-and-a-half times as many shark attacks as any other state. If Florida were its own country, it would rank No. 1 on the list of nations with the most total shark attacks.
Even within Florida, attacks are concentrated in certain areas. Volusia County, home to Daytona Beach, is where the bulk of the state’s bites occur, thanks to its high population of sharks and popular surf spots. Fortunately the area is home mostly to spinner sharks and black tip reef sharks, which are much smaller and less dangerous than their deadlier relatives.
How to make the risk even smaller
The odds of any one person being killed by a shark are extraordinarily low, much lower than the odds of being killed by a dog, fireworks or lightning.
But if the fear of being attacked still haunts you, there are things you can do to reduce your risk even further. Here are the top tips, according to Gavin Naylor, research director of the ISAF:
Don’t go in the water alone
Don’t go in the water at dawn or dusk
Don’t go in the water where there are a lot of fish
Don’t wear reflective jewelry in the water
Try to avoid splashing at the surface
