While sharks deserved our respect it does not mean that Hollywood is right when they imply with their shark movies that a soon as you go in the water you will become the victim of a shark attack. All it means is that we have to keep in mind that when we go in the water, we cannot ignore the fact that it is also their natural habitat and that we just entered their home.

What are actually the odds, in the United States, of being victim of a shark attack? Let’s study the odds given by a scientific study about it. If you take into consideration that there was 58 unprovoked shark attacks world wide in 2005 and that 38 of them happened in the United States which is a country that has a population of about 300 million, your odds to be victim or a shark attack is 1 in 8 million. Did you know that your odds of dying from a fall down the stairs are 1 in 200,000 which is lower than the odds of being a victim from a shark attack?

Also, your odds of dying from a wasp, bee or hornet sting are 1 in 5.9 million which is higher than being attacked by a shark. Your odds of dying from a lightning strike are 1 in 4.3 million which again is higher than being attacked by a shark.

Your odds of drowning in your bathtub are 1 in 800.000 which is once more lower that being victim of a shark attack. Other higher odds are: dying from an adverse reaction to antibiotics with the odds being 1 in 7 million, being killed by a falling object has odds of 1 in 400,000, being killed by an agricultural machine has odds of 1 in 500,000 and being killed in a motor vehicle accident has odds of 1 in 6,000.

What are the odds of actually winning your state lottery compared to being victim of a shark attack? Well, I guess that you just hit the “jackpot” as this is where the odds of a shark attack are higher as the odds of winning the state lottery are 1 in 14 million.