Global Terrorism Index: 2013 Saw Huge Jump in Terrorism

The Institute for Economics and Peace has released its annual Global Terrorism Index, analyzing terror trends and ranking countries in terms of their safety from terrorism. According to the report, terror activity in 2013 was much higher than in 2012, having grown from 11,133 deaths in 2012 to 17,958 deaths last year — the highest year-to-year increase on record.

As for where most terrorism is occurring, the answer not surprising — the top five countries were Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria. Last year, 82 percent of terrorism deaths took place in these five countries. Moreover, just four organizations took responsibility for 66 percent of terrorist attack deaths: ISIL, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qa’ida and affiliates.

According to the report, countries with higher levels of terrorism were found to have three statistically significant factors:

– Social hostilities between different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups.
– Presence of state-sponsored violence such as extrajudicial killings and political terror.
– Higher levels of other forms of violence, including violent demonstrations and levels of violent crime.

The report found no correlation between poverty and economic growth and terrorism.

The report ranked 162 countries based on four different indicators (number of terrorist incidents, number of fatalities, number of injuries and total property damage) over a five-year period. Where did the United States rank on the terrorism list? Number 30.

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