Americans far more likely to view politics as greatest threat to safety, study finds | US politics
Americans are 10 times more likely than people elsewhere in the world to view politics as the greatest threat to their personal security. According to a global study This shows that the country’s deep partisan divisions are poisoning daily life.
Latest Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Survey It found that when asked an open-ended question, one in 10 Americans identified politics as the biggest risk they face in their daily lives. This figure is above 6% in both 2021 and 2023 and well above the global average of 1% across 140 countries.
Although Americans tend to cite traffic accidents and crime as the worst dangers they face, the survey found that the United States is the only country that says the biggest risk to their safety is politics rather than personal health conditions.
“The 10 percent figure in the USA is an unprecedented figure,” he said Benedict VigersSenior global news writer at Gallup, which partnered on the research. “No other country ranked this high. This is 10 times the world average.
“The fact that people are now saying that the political situation is not just a national problem, but a visible daily risk to their safety as they go about their normal lives, shows how charged the political environment in the United States is and has been for many years.”
The United States was among the countries most likely to cite politics as a personal safety risk in all three waves of the World Risk Survey, but 2025 marks the first time it has topped the global rankings.
Effectively tied with Hungary at 9%; The surveys were conducted months before the country’s last elections. This was followed by Serbia, Latvia and Lithuania with a share of 6 percent, while Slovakia, Russia, Myanmar, Spain and Israel received a share of 5 percent each.
But the United States in particular has seen a rise in political violence over the past decade, including three assassination attempts on Donald Trump, the 2025 killing of Charlie Kirk, the targeting of other national and state officials, and the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. There has been an increase in domestic harassment, death threats against election administrators, and the use of personal information and “swatting” to intimidate and silence political opposition.
Concerns transcend demographic and ideological boundaries. No statistically significant differences were found by age, gender, education or political affiliation; Republicans, Democrats and independents alike describe politics as their biggest concern.
While participants generally blamed the opposition political wing for creating an atmosphere of insecurity, others noted the country’s increasingly fragmented politics more broadly.
“I have to say the polarization of the American people,” said a 54-year-old Republican man.
A 42-year-old independent male participant said: “I would say political extremism. I don’t have a lot of personal risk, but I think the biggest risk is people who are fanatical about their position and resort to violence.”
A 69-year-old Democratic woman added: “The political situation has a lot to do with whether I’m safe or not. I’m worried about where we’re going or might go.”
Vigers said: “Almost all respondents who say politics is the biggest risk to security directly or indirectly mention or reference polarization. Either Republicans say Democrats, or Democratic voters say Trump and Republicans are a big risk to security.”
“But there are a few others who have directly addressed this and said that the political climate has made me fear for my safety, or that the increasing sense of polarization has made me fear for my safety. This is a pretty uniquely American phenomenon.”
The findings echo other Gallup polls highlighting Americans’ growing disillusionment with politics. In 2025, one-third of U.S. adults identified politics and government as most important. The most important problem of the countryis well above the global average and was surpassed only by respondents in the Philippines and Taiwan.
5% of Americans by 2024 named USA his own worst enemy, the highest figure in history.
At the same time, trust in the government appears to be declining. In 2025, 58% of Americans said the government does not care about them at all; This figure is the highest on record and is 11 percentage points higher than in 2021. Among OECD member countries, only Colombia and Greece recorded higher levels of public alienation from the government.
