A new global survey reveals that Americans are 10 times more likely than people in other countries to regard politics as the greatest threat to their personal safety, highlighting the deep partisan divisions affecting everyday life in the United States.
Survey Findings
The latest Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll, conducted in partnership with Gallup, found that one in 10 Americans identified politics as the biggest risk they face in their daily lives when asked an open-ended question. This figure is up from 6% in both 2021 and 2023 and far exceeds the global average of 1% across 140 countries.
Although Americans remain more likely to cite road accidents and crime as the worst dangers, the US is the only country where more people named politics than personal health conditions as the biggest safety risk.
Unprecedented Levels
“The US figure of 10% is unprecedented,” said Benedict Vigers, a senior global news writer at Gallup. “No other country ranked higher. It’s 10 times the global average. It speaks to how charged the political environment is and has been for many years in the United States that people are now saying that the political situation is not just an issue nationally but is a seeable daily risk to their safety as they go about their normal lives.”
The US has ranked among the countries most likely to cite politics as a personal safety risk in all three waves of the World Risk Poll, but 2025 marks the first time it has reached the top of the global ranking. It was effectively tied with Hungary at 9%, followed by Serbia, Latvia, and Lithuania at 6%, and Slovakia, Russia, Myanmar, Spain, and Israel at 5%.
Rise in Political Violence
The US has witnessed a surge in political violence over the past decade, including three assassination attempts against Donald Trump, the 2025 killing of Charlie Kirk, targeting of other officials, and the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. There has also been a rise in harassment, death threats against election administrators, and the use of doxing and swatting to intimidate opponents.
Concerns Across Demographics
The concerns cut across demographic and ideological lines, with no statistically significant differences by age, gender, education, or political affiliation. Republicans, Democrats, and independents were all similarly likely to identify politics as their greatest concern. Respondents often blamed the opposing political camp for creating insecurity, while others pointed to the country's fractured politics.
One 54-year-old Republican man said: “I would have to say the state of polarisation of the American people.” A 42-year-old independent male respondent said: “I would say political extremism. I don’t have a lot of personal risk, but I do feel the biggest risk is people that are fanatical about their position and that they could be violent.” A 69-year-old Democratic woman added: “The political situation has a lot to do with the fact whether if I am safe or not. I am concerned where we’re going or might go.”
Unique American Phenomenon
Vigers noted: “Almost all of the respondents who mention that politics is the top risk to safety mention or refer to polarisation whether directly or indirectly. It’s either Republicans saying the Democrats or it’s Democratic voters saying Trump and the Republicans are a big risk to my safety. But we have several other people who call it out directly and say, the political environment makes me fearful for my safety or the heightened sense of polarisation makes me fear for my safety. It is quite a uniquely American phenomenon.”
Broader Disillusionment
The findings echo other Gallup polling showing Americans' growing disillusionment with politics. In 2025, a third of US adults identified politics and government as the country's most important problem, well above the global median and exceeded only by respondents in the Philippines and Taiwan. In 2024, 5% of Americans named the US as its own greatest enemy, the highest figure on record. Confidence in government has also deteriorated: in 2025, 58% of Americans said the government does not care about them at all, the highest figure recorded and 11 percentage points higher than in 2021. Among OECD member states, only Colombia and Greece recorded higher levels of public alienation from government.
