Culture

You Probably Won't Die In a Shark Attack

Scary risks aren't always common risks.

|

As you enjoy Shark Week, bOING bOING offers a useful reminder about relative risks:

About 200 million people go to U.S. beaches each year. About 36 of those hundreds of millions are attacked by sharks. Most of them survive. In contrast, more than 30,000 of those millions of beach-goers are to be rescued from surfing accidents. And many of those humans each year die, or must be rescued, from drowning incidents in which no other creature is to blame.

I have no stats, alas, on how often shark attacks are "personal":