In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and California, 16 percent of Americans say terrorism is the nation's No. 1 problem — the largest number in a decade, a new monthly poll shows.
The Gallup survey finding represents a jump from the 3 percent who mentioned terror as a top concern in early November; 46 percent said it was No. 1 after the 9/11 terror attacks.
"Two major attacks in short succession, at a time when concern about terrorism was already elevated given the threat of the Islamic State, have Americans on edge," the pollster said.
According to Gallup, terrorism faded as the top problem after 9/11, though mentions spike after "major terrorist incidents."
For example, the pollster notes, in 2004, mentions rose as high as 19 percent after the Madrid train bombings, and then jumped to 17 percent in 2005 after the London train and bus bombings.
This year, mentions of terrorism rose to 8 percent after the ISIS attacks of the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, Gallup reports.
In other finding in the December polling:
- 24 percent of Republicans name terrorism as the most important problem, compared with 9 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of independents. In November, 4 percent of Republicans, 3 percent of Democrats and 2 percent of independents named terrorism as the top problem.
- 9 percent of Americans mention the economy as the top problem, the lowest number since 2007. Mentions of the economy peaked at an all-time high of 58 percent at the end of 2008.
- 7 percent of Americans named guns or gun control as the most important U.S. problem, up from 3 percent in November. Prior to 2013, guns were rarely mentioned as the most important problem, Gallup reports.
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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