Monday, April 29, 2013

Risk of dying from terrorism

The Washingtons Blog has updated these numbers from 2011 to reflect current risks.  Unfortunately, a summary of the updates is more than I want to do today.  But the 2011 numbers below are bad enough for us to question just how much we should be spending on combating terrorism.
– You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack
– You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack
— You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane
— You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack
–You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack
— You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack
– You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack
–You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack
–You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack
–You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist
–You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack
– You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack

1 comment:

R J Adams said...

That's comforting. Especially the part that states I'm eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer. I assume they're referring to an American police officer?