Warning: Undefined array key "mode" in /home/jworldti/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sitespeaker-widget/sitespeaker.php on line 13
Global Terrorism Index 2026
Ansar Hafeez
Recently, the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) published the 13th annual edition of the Global Terrorism Index, a comprehensive study analyzing the impact of terrorism for 163 countries covering 99.7 percent of the world’s population. The index highlights that terrorism remains a persistent global threat, despite an overall decline in activity. The number of countries experiencing at least one terrorist incident increased to 66, the highest level since 2018.
Key Takeaways from GTI
1. The Institute for Economics and Peace, established in 2007 by Steve Killelea AM, publishes the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), a comprehensive, data-driven assessment that provides a detailed summary of key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last decade, drawing on data from 163 countries.
2. According to the index, terrorism remains a significant global threat. In 2025, 5,582 people were killed in terrorist attacks across 2,944 incidents. Although sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of terrorism, there was some improvement.
3. In 2025, global deaths and incidents both fell, however the distribution of terrorism remains uneven, with activity becoming more concentrated and shifting across regions, even as many countries recorded improvements in their overall impact from terrorism.
4. Pakistan surpassed Burkina Faso as the country with the highest impact of terrorism in 2025. This is the first time Pakistan has been ranked at number one on the Index. It has been ranked among the ten countries most impacted by terrorism every year since the inception of the index.
5. The Sahel region accounted for more than half of all deaths in 2025 from terrorism, compared to under one percent of deaths in 2007.
6. According to the Index, the average radicalization timeline has contracted dramatically: from 18 months in 2005 to 13 months in 2016. Today, radicalization can occur within a matter of weeks.
7. Several of the world’s most persistent terrorism hotspots are concentrated along border regions: the Colombia–Venezuela frontier, the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands, the Central Sahel tri-border area, and the Lake Chad Basin.
About GTI
The GTI provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last decade. The calculation of the GTI score considers not only deaths but also incidents, hostages and injuries from terrorism, weighted over a five-year period. The report is produced using event records on terrorist attacks since 1 January 2007. The current terrorism dataset contains over 66,000 terrorist incidents for the period 2007 until today.
The GTI ranks 163 countries based on four indicators weighted over five years. These are:
total number of terrorist incidents in a given year
total number of fatalities caused by terrorists in a given year
total number of injuries caused by terrorists in a given year
total number of hostages caused by terrorists in a given year
Each of the factors is weighted between zero and three, and a five year weighted average is applied in a bid to reflect the latent psychological effect of terrorist acts over time.
The writer is a member of staff.
