Nine Years After 9/11, Few See Terrorism as Top U.S. Problem

One percent see it as the top problem today, down from 46% in 2001 (So why are we giving away our rights? — Ed.)

Frank Newport — Gallup

PRINCETON, NJ — Nine years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 1% of Americans mention terrorism as the most important problem facing the country, down from 46% just after the attacks.

Just before the attacks, in a Gallup poll conducted Sept. 7-10, 2001, less than one-half of 1% of Americans mentioned terrorism as the nation’s most important problem. One month later, in October 2001, 46% named terrorism, the highest in Gallup’s history.

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.

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