What’s the deal with New Yorkers biting people?
A silly look into a silly statistic.
A week ago, I saw this popular meme, originally posted by u/snaif_the_meme_theif on Reddit:
This fact is undeniably pretty funny, and according to my research, mostly true — a cursory Google search confirms that New Yorkers do in fact bite people far more often than sharks. 6,700 is an exaggeration, however — just shy of 900 bites were reported in the year 1977 according to the New York City Department of Health*. That’s still many, many more than the 8 shark bites reported in U.S. waters that year, though.
So, in conclusion, don’t worry so much about shark attacks, I suppose.
I’m sure one day, the world will produce a topic I won’t fixate on, but I have yet to find it; naturally, while reading more about human bites than any normal person should, I discovered some interesting information I thought was worth sharing, so here I am. Truly, nobody asked for this.
Down the rabbit hole
Firstly, I think it’s worth mentioning that in that same year, 3 New Yorkers got bitten by lions, 21 were bitten by monkeys, and 1 very unlucky person was bitten by a polar bear!
I assumed this would be newsworthy, but I found no news articles from the time about any of these incidents — clearly, someone was embarrassed.
The report also states that somebody, somehow, managed to get bitten by an anteater. I have no idea how on earth you could achieve this. Frankly, anteaters look like they struggle with ants, let alone people — did this person stick a finger up it’s snout? What on earth happened?
Anyway, let’s turn the focus back to human bites.
Alarmingly, I discovered that the bite rate had doubled by 1985!
According to the study I mentioned earlier, a grand total of 892 human bites were recorded in 1977 — that means over 10 bites per 100k people on average, and about 2.4 bites a day!
In 1985, that number had risen to 1,591.
This increase coincides with a lower population of 7.1 million**, making the bite rate that year closer to 22 per 100k people! If I’m right, that’s double!
I had an assumption going in that the reason the bite rate was higher was a higher population — after all, a non-zero number of people are biters, so bringing in more people would inevitably bring more bites, right? Learning that the population actually went down from 1977 threw that theory out completely.
The authors of the study make a tenuous link between human bites and anti-social behaviour, and with almost 60% of human bites that year being linked to fights, it’s easy to see why. While it’s true that the number of aggravated assault cases reported is higher in ’85 than ’77, I’m not sure that completely explains the increase in bites.
My running theory is that the three different films about Dracula that released in ’79*** are responsible. I fully believe that premiering those three films at the turn of the decade set in motion a butterfly effect that would get 2 extra New Yorkers bitten a day years later.
Seriously though, at time of writing, I have not a clue why the bite rate increased so dramatically. If anyone has a deep knowledge and understanding on this topic, I beg you to get in touch. I’m hoping for my sake that I’ve made some sort of statistical error, because I’d rather like to visit New York and the idea of being gnawed on is turning me off of it. :)
That’s all from me. If you enjoyed this article (or didn’t) let me know, and if you’d be interested in my thoughts on a much less bite-y city, check out my ferry experience in London. Thanks for reading!
If you really liked this article and want to support me, consider buying me a coffee (god knows I need a few.)
* The department first began recording human bites the year prior.
** I couldn’t find an exact figure for the population of New York in 1985, but I found no evidence of a dramatic change in population that year and estimates suggest it fluctuated between 7 million and 7.3 million throughout the 1980s, so I’m guestimating.
- ** “Nosferatu the Vampyre”, “Love at First Bite”, and “Dracula” (1979).
