The Most-Googled Safety Questions in the US

In our ongoing efforts to make the world a safer, more aware place, we wanted to see what safety issues Americans were most concerned about in 2020 and how those changed since 2019. With COVID-19’s arrival into our daily lives, there was a dramatic shift, but questions about health, travel, and food and drink remain at the top of the safety searches.

Are you concerned about the same things as the rest of the United States?

Questions related to COVID-19 captured 65% of safety-related search results in 2020. That trend will likely continue through 2021 as the world anticipates vaccines and other safety and support measures. As of this writing, the United States is approaching 15,000,000 total novel coronavirus cases and 300,000 total deaths.¹

Health-related questions topped safety searches in 2019, and the pandemic only solidified the focus on health and safety in 2020. However, unlike the previous year, in 2020, travel safety became far more intertwined with personal health and safety. COVID-19’s spread also amplified food and drink concerns.

In 2020 and 2019, a few queries remained at the top of the safety search results. We’ll help answer some of these ongoing, less-complex questions.

• "Is it safe to eat raw eggs?” When you eat raw eggs, you face a low risk of salmonella poisoning; the USDA recommends pasteurized eggs.²
• "Is it safe to shower during a thunderstorm?” The CDC recommends avoiding showers during thunderstorms because lightning can travel through plumbing.³
• "Is it safe to drink tap water?” Drinking tap water safely depends on the source and filtration used.⁴ If you’re traveling or questioning a local area’s supply, consult the CDC’s travel destinations list. When in doubt, drink bottled water.
• "Is it safe to take melatonin?” Melatonin is a relatively safe and natural hormone taken for sleep aid and relaxation, but you should be aware of melatonin’s interactions with medications, allergies, pregnancy, children, and more.⁵

Based on this year’s most-Googled safety search results, COVID-19 seems to dominate Americans' safety concerns, but other factors may also be at play.

During the pandemic, traveling brings up many different safety questions, but some questions may relate to non-COVID-19 safety concerns. 

For example, “Is it safe to travel to Egypt?” may be related to those who are already willing to travel to Egypt but worry about COVID-19 contamination. But it’s also likely that travelers were concerned by terrorist attacks on tourists in the Sinai Peninsula, which resulted in four deaths and 18 wounded as of May 2019.⁶

Food and drink took up a smaller portion of the searches, but questions like "Is it safe to order takeout?” or “Is it safe to eat fast food?” have more to do with COVID-19 than they do with things like purchasing safety or consumption safety (unlike “Is it safe to eat 2-year-old frozen meat?”). We recommend following the CDC’s guidelines for relevant COVID-19 food safety information. 

While some ambiguity remains about which questions directly relate to COVID-19, there is no denying that the novel coronavirus impacted our daily lives.

Year-to-year, the top safety categories saw shifts related to COVID-19’s impact:

• Concern for travel safety increased in 2020 by 15% from 2019.
• Injury-related concerns dropped by 35%.
• Tech- and crime-related safety searches dropped to virtually nothing compared to the other concerns of 2020.

Somewhat surprisingly, questions surrounding masks, sanitizer, cleaning, or other COVID-19 related safety precautions were absent from the list.

Georgia, more than any other state, searched the most for the top 25 safety questions. Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Vermont also ranked higher than the rest of the US in safety-related search volume.

If you still have safety questions, we’re here to help. We have plenty of resources on the state of safety in America to help you evaluate safety in your area. And while the novel coronavirus remains a concern, keep up with our crime and coronavirus updates. Or maybe you just need some handy safety checklists to keep your life running as smooth as possible.

With so much going on in the world during 2020, it may be hard to imagine a safer future. But awareness is the first step to solving the problems you may face. Remember: you can take steps every day to help ensure the safety of yourself and others.

To determine the most-Googled safety queries, our data analysts used a combination of Google Search tools including Google Trends and Ahrefs. We removed nearly identical questions, as well as any that were NSFW or were not about personal safety. We obtained state data from Google Ads to see the average monthly searches per capita for each state’s query.

• The 100 Safest Cities in America
• The 50 Safest College Towns
• The 50 Safest Cities to Raise a Child
• The 10 Safest and Most Dangerous Metros Cities in America
• The Biggest Safety Threats in the US
• Most (and Least) Risky States for Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning

1. CDC, “CDC COVID-19 Data Tracker,” Accessed Dec 7th, 2020.
2. USDA, “Egg Products and Food Safety,” Accessed Dec 7th, 2020.
3. CDC, “Lightning: Lightning Safety Tips,” Accessed Dec 7th, 2020.
4. CDC, “Drinking Water,” Accessed Dec 7th, 2020.
5. National Institutes of Health, “Melatonin: What You Need to Know,” Accessed Dec 7th, 2020.
6. US State Department, “Egypt International Travel Information,” Accessed Dec 7, 2020.