The Impact of Terrorism Around the World

According to the Global Terrorism Index 2024, a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace measuring the impact of terrorism around the world, deaths from terrorism rose to 8,352 globally in 2023, marking a 22 percent increase from the previous year. That increase came despite a 23 percent drop in terrorist attacks, with fell to 3,350 in 2023. At the same time, terrorism has become more concentrated, as the number of countries recording at least one death from terrorism fell to 41 in 2023, down from 57 in 2015, when deaths from terrorism peaked. Last year, 10 countries accounted for 87 percent of global deaths from terrorism, with Burkina Faso, Israel and Mali alone accounting for more than 45 percent of fatalities.

This infographic, based on the 'Global Terrorism Index 2024', provides an overview of how much different countries and regions have been affected by terrorism over the past five years. The Institute for Economics and Peace takes four indicators into account: the number of terrorist attacks as well as the number of fatalities, injuries and hostages taken in such attacks. It looks at a five-year period, whereby recent incidents are weighted more strongly than those further in the past. Interestingly, the 2024 index marks the first time in the report's 13-year history that neither Afghanistan nor Iraq have been top of the list. Instead, Burkina Faso is now the country most severely impacted by terrorism, which is indicative of a broader trend, which saw the epicenter of terrorism shift from the Middle East into Sub-Saharan Africa, with Mali, Niger and Nigeria also high on the list.