In 2007, 14.9% of the NSW population reported that they thought pandemic influenza was very or extremely likely to occur and 45.5% were very or extremely concerned that they or their family would be affected by an influenza pandemic should it occur [8] . What may be of particular importance however, is how risk perception varies within the population. Risk perception may be affected by factors such as awareness of a hazard, cultural and social factors or the experience or memory of a prior similar hazard, all of which may result in variation in risk perception among individuals. Lau et al. [11] found in a Hong Kong sample that the odds of females reporting worry about themselves or their families contracting an outbreak of avian influenza if it is to occurr were 1.6 times higher than the odds of males reporting such worry. De Zwart et al. [12] similarly found that women and older respondents scored significantly higher on a composite measure of risk perception (combining perceived seriousness of threat and vulnerability to threat) than men and younger respondents, respectively. In an Italian population, Di Giuseppe et al. [10] found that risk perception was higher for respondents with lower socioeconomic status and lower education.