U.S. views on terrorism.
According to Gallup, just one percent of Americans mention terrorism as the nation's most important problem, identical to what it was when the polling firm asked the question during a Sept. 7-10, 2001 polling session:
From that point on, terrorism slowly faded as a response to this question. At the one-year anniversary of the attacks, in September 2002, 19% of Americans mentioned terrorism as the country's top problem, already eclipsed by the economy at the top of the list. By the five-year anniversary of the attacks in September 2006, 11% of Americans mentioned terrorism. Terrorism continued to drop from that point, albeit with an uptick to 8% mentions in January of this year, reflecting the widespread news coverage of the "Christmas Day bomber" who allegedly attempted to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines plane headed for Detroit.
Meanwhile, a Rasmussen poll finds that people expect another 9/11 style attack in the next ten years:
71% of Americans think itâ??s at least somewhat likely another event this devastating will happen within the next decade. This includes 39% who say it's Very Likely.A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 22% of Adults believe itâ??s not very or not at all likely another 9/11 will take place in America in the next 10 years.
The number of adults who feel another terrorist attack is possible is up five points from last year when 66% of Americans felt that way.
