Did a Gallup poll find that Americans feared public speaking more than death? No, not ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some surveys about fear of public speaking have been misquoted repeatedly for many years. There is a post at the SpeakUp PUBLIC SPEAKING PRACTICE blog on April 2, 2026 titled Fear of Public Speaking Is More Common Than You Think. The second paragraph gave a nonworking link and claimed:

 

“A Gallup poll found many Americans reported fearing public speaking more than death.”

 

But that survey actually looked at two surveys from 2001 and 1998 on what more people feared, which is a completely different question than what people feared more. And death was not on those fears lists. The quarter-century old article by Geoffrey Brewer at Gallup News on March 19, 2001 is titled Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears. For 2001 the list of 13 fears and their percentages is as follows:

 

Snakes: 51%

Public speaking in front of an audience: 40%

Heights: 36%

Being closed in a small space: 34%

Spiders and insects: 27%

Needles and getting shots: 21%

Mice: 20%

Flying on an airplane: 18%

Crowds: 11%

Dogs: 11%

Thunder and lightning: 11%

Going to the doctor: 9%

The dark: 5%

 

And for 1998 the list of 13 fears and their percentages is as follows:

 

Snakes: 56%

Public speaking in front of an audience: 45%

Heights: 41%

Being closed in a small space: 36%

Spiders and insects: 34%

Mice: 26%

Needles and getting shots: 21%

Flying on an airplane: 20%

Thunder and lightning: 17%

Going to the doctor: 12%

Crowds: 11%

Dogs: 10%

The dark: 8%

 

Another earlier article by Roxine Kee at CollegeInfoGeek on September 17, 2018 titled 5 Tips for Crafting Great Speeches and Presentations stated:

 

“If you’re like most people, you probably would rather die than present in front of a classroom. I’m not exaggerating: in this Gallup poll from 2001, the fear of public speaking is ranked #2, ahead of the fear of death (#6).”

 

There is an undated article by Kathy Varol titled The secret that turned my public speaking anxiety into excitement which also claimed:

 

“A 2001 Gallup poll found that 40% of Americans cited public speaking as their top fear – more than double the number who feared death.”

 

But Kathy confused the Gallup poll with the 1973 Bruskin survey I had blogged about in a post back on October 27, 2009 titled The 14 Worst Human Fears in the 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from? It found 40.6% feared speaking while 18.7% feared death.

  

Another undated article from Eileen Hopkins titled Are you afraid to speak in public? said that:

 

“Public speaking is one of the greatest fears people face; in fact, according to a Gallup poll, 40% of people are more scared of giving a speech than they are of dying!

 

Also, on July 18, 2025 I blogged about Spouting nonsense – a YouTube video from Amrez with fairy tales about two surveys on public speaking fears. One was the Gallup article but they incorrectly claimed it included death, illness, old age, running, losing a loved one, or other.  

 

The skull and crossbones cartoon came from here at Wikimedia Commons.