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We break down the latest global shark incident figures, compare them against historical baselines, and explain why the numbers alone rarely tell the full story.
The Global Shark Attack File closed out 2025 with 68 confirmed unprovoked incidents worldwide — slightly below the five-year average of 73, and well below the media narrative that shark attacks are increasing year over year.
The headline figure of 68 unprovoked incidents masks significant regional variation. Australia recorded 22 incidents (the highest globally), the United States 18, and South Africa 9. The remaining incidents were distributed across Réunion, Brazil, New Caledonia, and a dozen other countries.
Fatal outcomes accounted for 10 of those 68 incidents — a fatality rate of approximately 15%, consistent with historical averages. For context: in the 1950s and 60s, fatality rates were closer to 35%, reflecting improvements in emergency medicine and proximity to medical care, not a behavioral change in sharks.
The single most important variable in shark incident trends is ocean participation. Global ocean sport participation has grown enormously since 2000 — surfing alone is estimated to have tripled in active practitioners. When incidents are normalized against estimated ocean hours, the per-hour risk of a shark encounter has been declining or stable across all studied regions.
A rational reading of 2025 data suggests ocean risk from sharks has not meaningfully changed. The activities most likely to result in an encounter remain consistent with decades of data: surfing in dawn/dusk hours near known aggregation areas, spearfishing, and swimming in turbid river-mouth conditions.
Shark Data Lab