An obscure UK survey from 2005 found public speaking was the most common fear there

Back in 2005 two firms, Promethean AV Distribution and The Confident Club (who conduct presentation coaching), hired YouGov to conduct a survey of 2000 adults in the UK. Promethean was interested in use of presentation tools, and The Confident Club in fears (especially of public speaking). Results first appeared in an article at IT Reseller on April 21, 2005 titled New research shows adoption of interactive technology beyond education on the increase. Other media like newspapers ignored the fears which didn’t appear in that title.

A bar chart shown above presents results for presentation tools. An overhead projector was used by 61%, a flipchart by 59%, a laptop and PowerPoint by 52%, a whiteboard by 47%, and interactive presentation technology by just 12%. 15% used none of these.  

Another bar chart presents results for fears – listed at the very end of that article. Speaking in public was feared by 42%, heights by 34%, death by 28%, spiders by 24%, confined spaces by 21%, unemployment by 16%, flying by 8%, and both parenthood and the dark by 4%. 11% feared none of these situations. Just results for fear of public speaking and of death were mentioned in an article titled How to…get the most out of public speaking training by Alex Blyth at page 7 of the June 2006 issue of British magazine Training & Coaching Today.  

Much later, on April 19, 2017, the fear results again were described in a blog post by The Confident Club titled Brits fear making presentations more than dying. A heading said the percentages were for those to list it in their top three fears. The blog post added that 48% are making presentations to large audiences or speaking in public as part of their working life, and 34% believed they will significantly improve their career prospects by improving their presentation technique.