Poll Finds Few Americans Fret About Terrorism

A year after the Oklahoma City bombing, few Americans consciously worry about massive terrorist attacks on public places in the United States, says a poll released Wednesday.

Almost three-fourths of those responding to the poll, 72%, consider a nuclear, chemical or biological attack a possibility. About 1 in 8, or 13%, say they worry about it a great deal, and 59% say they worry little or not at all.

The poll comes a year after a truck bomb touched off outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City last year killed 168 people and injured more than 500.

The Pew Research poll also found younger adults less worried than older respondents about the threat of attack by nuclear or other mass-destruction weapons. While 77% of people 30 to 49 years old and 74% of those 50 to 64 saw a chance of nuclear, chemical or biological terrorism, 65% of those 18 to 29 said the same.

The telephone poll, conducted March 28-31 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, involved a nationwide sample of 1,500 people 18 or older and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The center is a private research organization based in Washington.