America’s Top 10 Fears:
The 2021 American Fear Index

More than half of U.S. adults are afraid of illness, violence, saving for retirement, and government corruption

2020 was a difficult year full of extraordinary events that left many Americans reeling. A raging pandemic, an economic recession, a contested election and a dramatic insurrection. These were just a few events that had tensions running high nationwide. As such, we wanted to gauge how Americans approached their fears and managed their stress in 2020. Our research into the experiences of 2,000 people from all walks of life have created a snapshot of what Americans most feared during one of the most difficult years to date.

Americans’ Top 10 Fears, 2021

1. Loved ones dying
2. Loved ones becoming seriously ill
3. Mass shootings
4. Not having enough money for retirement
5. Terrorism
6. Government corruption
7. Becoming terminally ill
8. Hate crimes
9. High medical bills
10. Widespread civil unrest

Overall, health issues and public violence emerged as the most pressing worries, with financial strain, distrust of government, and environmental concerns looming alongside standard fears like crime, slimy creatures, and car crashes. The comprehensive study revealed:

• 45 percent of people are experiencing more daily anxiety and fear than they were 12 months ago;
• After a year of isolation and conflict, the idea of losing loved ones generates a great deal of fear: 65 percent were afraid of the death of a loved one, and 1 in 5 people were afraid of losing relationships due to political differences.
• Fears varied greatly along political lines: conservatives are more frightened of gun restrictions than gun violence, and are more afraid of communism than the death of loved ones; liberals fear fascism more than car crashes or physical assault.

The Most Stressful Year on Record: An Overview

2020 has been labeled the most stressful year on record, and the American Psychological Association said rampant anxiety has become a national mental health emergency. Our research indicated that even a year later, that stress hadn’t improved much. Only 29 percent of respondents said their daily anxiety was down in 2021 as opposed to 2020, and 45 percent said it had increased. This increasing stress has physical consequences, too. About 39 percent of respondents said they were losing sleep at least once a week between 2021 and 2022. To identify which factors fueled this anxiety, we asked participants to record their level of fear in relation to 41 different issues across seven categories: health, relationships, finances, politics, environment, crime, and other fears. We compiled their responses into a fear index measuring average apprehension on an ascending scale between one and 100, indicating the highest level of fear. We’ll compare the top fears in each of the categories above, and explore differences between various demographic groups. A full “fear index” is also available in the appendix.

Relationships: Americans Fear Death of Their Loved Ones as Well as Political Division

With nearly 1.2 million fatalities to date attributed to COVID-19, it’s not surprising that illness, death, and relationship issues dominated American’s concerns. The only two fears in our research that registered a fear score over 90 among the overall population were the fear of a loved one's death and the fear of a loved one becoming seriously ill. One in five respondents reported that they were afraid that political differences might cause rifts in their relationships with their families and friends — particularly differences of opinion on which presidential candidates to support as well as stances on vaccination. Others have been cut off from loved ones due to extremist views with growing frequency — a relatively new phenomenon in the United States.

Politics: Terrorism, Communism, and Fascism Are Causes for Concern

Headline events continually strained the very fabric of society as police violence, hotly contested elections, and conflicting vaccine information sowed distrust across the political spectrum, perpetuating cycles of conflict and anxiety. Hate crimes and police brutality led to widespread protests, which provoked calls for law and order. An attack on the U.S. capitol — the first since 1812 — also created new political fears. This series of events created compounding unrest and unease about public safety and stoked fears among Americans. While overall results showed political and governmental worries to be generally widespread, a closer look revealed that specific fears often varied widely across the political spectrum. Given the nation’s wide political divide, it wasn't surprising to find statistical differences along ideological lines, but when we isolated answers between liberals and conservatives, it sometimes felt like looking at two separate studies. Americans on both sides of the fence shared concern about civil unrest, undue corporate influence, and terrorism. Left and right were also similarly concerned about government corruption, but the form that corruption took was very different depending on personal ideology. Those with conservative political views were more concerned with the threats of socialism and communism, the potential of firearm restrictions, and government surveillance, while those with more liberal leanings were more concerned with police brutality, hate crime, and the growing threat of fascism. These divergent concerns may be fed by contrasting information bubbles, especially on social media, painting starkly disparate views of the world.

Finances: Retirement Savings and Medical Costs Cause Dread

The recent economic recession wreaked havoc in a variety of ways. Lockdowns shuttered businesses and caused widespread unemployment, a stock market crash highlighted the volatility of savings, and hospitalization costs reminded Americans how easily illness could bankrupt them. These situations were likely on Americans’ minds as they considered their top financial fears. Though economic setbacks sent ripples of insecurity through many layers of society, the level and focus of financial fears was also influenced by wealth. Those earning less than $50,000 per year reported fear scores significantly higher in areas of everyday monetary challenges, while individuals with bigger paychecks were noticeably more concerned about stock market performance. Additionally, women were more likely than men to report feeling afraid of retirement savings: 59 percent of women felt this fear, compared to 49 percent of men.

Crime: Mass Shootings Down in 2020, but Fear Remains High

Law-abiding citizens may always fear crime, but as American cities experienced an uptick in certain offenses during 2020, such issues seemed more prominent in respondents' minds. Economic hardship, societal anxiety, increased online activity, and renewed debate over the role of police stoked fears of criminal activity. Mass shootings, which decreased during pandemic lockdowns, were still the most feared crime and the third overall fear. Identity theft was the second-most feared crime, reflecting the expansion of cybercrimes associated with the movement to remote working. Although more people were spending time at home, robbery and burglary still caused worry, with an average score of 61 out of 100. Across the board, women reported greater fear than men when it came to crime issues, especially regarding mass shootings and physical assault where the gap in fear scores exceeded 20 points.

Conclusion

A year dominated by a virus, a recession, and political unrest left American anxieties running high. Medical concerns, financial worries, and deepening political distrust were our most prominent fears, all tied to dire current events. There are signs of hope on the horizon since the darkest days of last year: the invention of Covid-19 vaccines, an improving economy, and a peaceful transfer of presidential power. What remains to be seen is whether these positive steps will quell our fears, bring us together, and allow Americans to sleep peacefully.

Our data

We asked 2,083 US adults about their fears. Their response choices were “Not afraid,” “Slightly Afraid,” “Afraid,” or “Very Afraid” across 41 fears in the survey. These choices were used to create a Fear Score for each topic. Fear Scores were determined by ascribing a value from 0 (Not Afraid) to 3 (Very Afraid) for each response and then representing the total score for each fear as a percentage of the total value had every respondent had answered “Afraid” (Nx2).

Rank	Fear	Fear score	Percent "afraid" or "very afraid"
1	Loved ones dying	94	65%
2	Loved ones becoming seriously ill	93	64%
3	Mass shootings	89	60%
4	Not having enough money for retirement	80	54%
5	Terrorism	79	50%
6	Corrupt government officials	78	52%
7	Personally becoming seriously ill	78	50%
8	Hate crimes	77	51%
9	High medical bills	76	51%
10	Widespread civil unrest	75	49%
11	Car crash	72	45%
12	Snakes	71	45%
13	Fascism	70	45%
14	Losing access to clean air	67	43%
15	Losing access to drinking water	66	42%
16	Identity theft	65	38%
17	Police brutality	64	42%
18	Plastic waste buildup	63	40%
19	Being hit by a drunk driver	62	38%
20	Losing home to a natural disaster	62	38%
21	Unable to pay rent/mortgage	62	40%
22	Corporations influencing government	61	38%
23	Robbery or burglary	61	35%
24	Never paying off debt	61	40%
25	Being physically assaulted	60	37%
26	Government tracking personal data	60	36%
27	Being alone	58	37%
28	Spiders	56	32%
29	Plane crash	56	34%
30	Losing your job	53	33%
31	Stock market crashing	52	30%
32	Communism	49	30%
33	Unfaithful partner	43	28%
34	Workplace automation	42	24%
35	Being the victim of domestic abuse	37	24%
36	Firearm restrictions	37	24%
37	Relationships lost to political/social differences	37	20%
38	Needles	35	18%
39	Lightning strikes	34	19%
40	Ghosts	31	17%
41	Being abducted by aliens	17	10%