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Global Terrorism Index 2019

Countries
World
Sources
IEP
Publication date

*Access 163 country rankings in the full report

  • Afghanistan down: Afghanistan was the country most impacted by terrorism in 2018, replacing Iraq, which had held that position since 2004.
  • Impact trend: Since 2002, all the countries have remained on the 10 most impacted list apart from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

GLOBAL RANKINGS
A Global Overview
Deaths from terrorism halved in the last four years, but the number of countries affected is growing.

  • Global security threat: 71 countries recorded at least one death from terrorism in 2018 — the highest second number of countries since 2002.
  • European improvement: Deaths in Europe fell by 70%, with Western Europe recording its lowest number of incidents since 2012.
  • Far-right terrorism up: There has been an increase in far-right terrorism for the third year running, in Western Europe, North America and Oceania, with deaths up by 52% in 2018.

ECONOMIC IMPACT Estimating the global impact

The economic impact of terrorism model includes costs from four categories: deaths, injuries, property destruction, and GDP losses from terrorism.

What does it tell us? Deaths from terrorism are the largest category in the model, accounting for 58% of the global economic impact of terrorism — equivalent to $19.3 billion 2018.

By the numbers

  • GDP losses are the second largest category contributing to 39% of the total, or $12.9 billion.
  • Property destruction is estimated at 2% of the global economic impact of terrorism, with injuries at just 1% of the total.
  • In 2018, all four categories in the economic impact of terrorism model decreased from 2017 levels — that's down by $20.6 billion.

KEY FINDINGS Far-right terrorism in the West

The last few years have seen a growing concern over the threat posed by far-right extremism and terrorism — particularly in the West.

The rise in-far right attacks has led some observers to state that far-right domestic terrorism has not been taken seriously enough by the West, and that security and intelligence services should be paying closer attention to this threat.

Despite far-right terrorism accounting for a tiny fraction of the worldwide total, incidents have been increasing in the West, particularly in Western Europe, North America and Oceania:

  • The total number of incidents in the West have increased by 320% over the last five years — see the chart below for 1970 – 2018.
  • There have been eleven far-right attacks in the last 50 years that have killed more than 50 people.
  • The three largest politically motivated terrorist attacks in the West in the last 50 years have been perpetuated by far-right extremists.

Far-right terrorism in the last ten years has become increasingly associated with individuals with broad ideological allegiances rather than specific terrorist groups.