Our biggest concerns are dominated by cyber-crimes:
Bottom Line: We don't need any reminders about how many crazy threats there are in the world around us. The recent devastating attacks in Sutherland Springs, Texas, New York City and Las Vegas only add to the sense of insecurity of everyday things we encounter from the comfort of our own home and computer. Gallup just finished up some pretty compelling research on what really worries us at least some of the time. Here's the question they posed...
How often do you worry about the following things? These answers were those which worry us at least occasionally:
- Having your personal, credit card or financial information stolen by computer hackers: 67%
- Being the victim of identity theft: 66%
- Having your car stolen or broken into: 38%
- Your home being burglarized when you are not there: 36%
- Being the victim of terrorism: 30%
- Having a school-aged child physically harmed attending school: 26%
- Getting mugged: 25%
- Your home being burglarized when you are there: 23%
- Being a victim of a hate crime: 22%
- Getting murdered: 18%
- Being sexually assaulted: 18%
- Being attacked while driving your car: 18%
- Being assaulted/killed by a coworker/employee where you work: 6%
Yikes, that's a lot of worry! So, two-thirds of us are worried regularly about ID theft and other forms of financial fraud. With nearly 1 in 5 Americans having now been a victim of ID theft it's understandable. Having had several attempts against me this year alone, I'm certainly part of that stat. It is interesting that we've generally more concerned about home invasion and car theft than terrorism. That's probably a good thing actually. At least to the extent that being worried about anything can be good. I find it especially alarming that 1 in five adults is concerned about a child being harmed at school and nearly a fifth of adults being concerned about being sexually assaulted. There are many stories within these numbers. They tell an instructive, if disconcerting, picture of our lives.