Not in Australia! Seven of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world live there, but you're not likely to get bitten unless you’re a rodent.
The place where you're most likely to die of a snake bite is Sri Lanka. In fact, six of every 100,000 deaths each year are due to snake bite. In 2008, 33,000 snake bites were recorded by the Sri Lankan government — in comparison, only about 3,000 bites are recorded each year in Australia. The high death rate in Sri Lanka may be due in part to the high population density; in 1995, there were about 281 people per square kilometer (about 282 people per square mile). People choosing to live in remote locations may also have an impact — in 1981, the census recorded 78.5% of the population living in rural areas.
More fun facts:
- Sri Lanka is home to every known venomous snake family.
- There are 190 reptile species living in Sri Lanka — 96 of them are snakes.
- Poisonous snakes include: Cobra, Common Krait, Sri Lanka krait, Russells's viper, Saw scale viper, Hump nose viper, Green pit viper, plus 13 species of marine snakes.
- Krait bites become more frequent during mating season.
- There are over 20 million people living in Sri Lanka.
- Sri Lanka is 25,332 square miles (65,610 square kilometers) — about the size of the state of West Virginia in the United States.
