World's worst shark attack locations revealed and US hotspot tops list
There are parts of the world which are particularly bad for shark attacks
The most dangerous spots in the world for shark attacks have been revealed, and one location might surprise you.
There are hundreds of species of shark that live in the ocean, but only a handful of them are dangerous to humans.
Great White Sharks are the most dangerous, along with Bull Sharks and Tiger Sharks with these three species in particular often coming into contact with humans.
Great Whites, Bull Sharks, and Tiger Sharks are all large, active predators, as well as scavengers, and live where they can find food such as pinnipeds like seals and sea lions, turtles, birds, or scavenging off dead whale carcasses.
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And all of these animals, alive and dead, tend to be concentrated more towards the coast where there is more food for them too, as well as places for seals and sea lions to breed.
So because they are drawn to coastal locations, these large sharks are more likely to come into contact with humans.
You might assume, given the fearsome reputation of its wildlife, that Australia would be top of the list for the number of shark attacks.
While it does rank highly, it doesn't take the top spot for the number of bites - this dubious title goes to Florida.
An annual report published by the International Shark Attack Files, and cited in the Daily Mail, indicated that bites had increased.
However, don't panic as while they had gone up, this was back to almost average levels as the number had reduced dramatically in 2024, so it's less a trend of getting worse and more returning to average.
In 2025 there were 65 shark attacks recorded, and while this is below the 10-year average of 72 an unusually high proportion of the attacks were fatal.
This was nine deaths, higher than the average of six.
The US as a whole accounted for 25 bites, or 38 percent of the total, but out of those 11 happened in Florida, representing 17 percent of the global attacks.
Not only that, but more than half of these happened in Volusia County, in east-central Florida.
But while the US had the most attacks, Australia sadly had the most fatalities, having only 32 percent of attacks, but 56 per cent of fatalities.
The figures only refer to 'unprovoked attacks', where someone hasn't approached or provoked the shark first.
Sharks investigate things by biting them, and the majority of unprovoked attacks are a case of a shark carrying out an 'exploratory' bite, before leaving when they realize a human isn't their food.
Unfortunately, the power of a bite from a Great White, Bull Shark, or Tiger Shark is so strong that even an 'exploratory' bite can cause life-changing and fatal injuries.
Kit Roberts