MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

TEN COUNTRIES WHERE TERRORISM HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT IN 2014
The ten countries with the highest number of deaths in 2014
accounted for 88 per cent of the global total. However, the
majority of these deaths have occurred in just five countries. As
in both 2012 and 2013, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Syria remain the five countries most affected by terrorism.
In 2014 these five countries accounted for 78 per cent of all
terrorist deaths. Four of the five countries had the highest
levels ever recorded. Nigeria’s increase in deaths is also the
largest yearly increase ever recorded.
The order between these five countries has altered from
previous years. Nigeria has moved from the country with the
fifth highest levels of fatalities in 2013 to the second highest in
2014. Pakistan was the only country in the ten most impacted
countries that saw a decline in deaths and accordingly it
dropped from third to fourth. In Pakistan in 2013 terrorism
killed 2,356 people whereas in 2014 1,760 people were killed, a
difference of nearly 600 people. This is in part due to the
further fracturing of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
There was also movement in the countries ranked six to ten,
with three countries moving into the group for the first time.
These countries are Ukraine, Central African Republic and
South Sudan. The three new additions to the ten most
impacted countries all experienced large increases in deaths. In
the years from 2000 to 2013 Ukraine had only three deaths
from terrorism, the Central African Republic had 193 and
South Sudan had 167. In 2014, all three countries had over
550 deaths. The Central African Republic had an increase of
over 500 per cent. South Sudan experienced an increase of
361 per cent. However, the biggest proportional change was in
Ukraine which had no deaths from terrorism in 2013 and 665
deaths in 2014.
Both the deadliness and the concentration of terrorism has
increased across the rest of the world. The rest of the world
refers to all countries bar the ten countries with the highest
number of deaths.
Outside the ten countries with the highest number of
deaths from terrorism, deaths increased by 139 per
cent from 2013 to 2014.
In 2014 there were 4,005 deaths from terrorism in the
rest of the world, representing 12 per cent of total
deaths.
In contrast, in 2013 there were 1,679 deaths from
terrorism in the rest of the world representing 9.3 per
cent of deaths in that year.
This reflects the spread of terrorism and its increasing
deadliness around the world.
FIGURE 3 COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF DEATHS BY TERRORISM, 2014
Five countries account for nearly 80 per cent of global terrorist deaths.
NUMBER OF DEATHS
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
30.4%
23.0%
13.8%
5.4% 5.2% 2.5% 2.0% 2.0% 1.8% 1.7% 12.3%
5,000
0
Iraq Nigeria Afghanistan Pakistan Syria Somalia Ukraine Yemen Central
African
Republic
South
Sudan
Rest of the
world
Source: START GTD
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Results
16