Americans say terrorism tops list of US problems: Gallup

After the deadly terror attacks in Paris of France and San Bernardino, California, Americans are now more likely to name terrorism as the top US problem, found a Gallup poll released Monday. About one in six Americans, or 16 percent, now identify terrorism as the most important US problem, up from just 3 percent in early November. This is the highest percentage of Americans to mention terrorism as the top problem in a decade, although it is still lower than the 46 percent measured after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, Gallup found. The terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have altered how Americans view the problems facing the United States. The data show that terrorism has now become the single most-frequently mentioned issue when Americans are asked to name the most important problem, Gallup found. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for last month's Paris attacks -- the bloodiest violence the city has seen since World War II, in which 130 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded. But whether the group was directly or indirectly involved in the recent California attack, in which 14 people were killed, remains under investigation. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say terrorism is the most important problem facing the United States. Currently, 24 percent of Republicans name terrorism as the most important problem, compared with 9 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of independents. That is up sharply from November, when 4 percent of Republicans, 3 percent of Democrats and 2 percent of independents named terrorism as the top problem, Gallup found. Only 9 percent of Americans now list economy as the most important problem, the lowest percentage to mention the issue since the end of 2007, before the depths of the recession took hold.