Global Terrorism Index 2026: what the numbers show

The short answer. The Global Terrorism Index 2026 is the Institute for Economics and Peace's yearly count of terrorism worldwide. It found 5,582 deaths in 2025, down 28% on 2024, and ranked Pakistan the worst-hit country for the first time. Four Islamist groups caused 70% of the deaths, but the Index sorts attacks by group and motive, not by the religion of attackers or victims.¹

Key facts #

• Terrorism killed 5,582 people in 2,944 attacks in 2025, the lowest figures since 2007. The peak was 10,882 deaths in 2015.¹
• Pakistan ranked first in 2025 with 1,139 deaths, the most there since 2013. Burkina Faso, ranked first in 2023 and 2024, fell to second.¹
• Islamic State, JNIM, the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and al-Shabaab caused 3,869 deaths in 2025, or 70% of the world total.¹
• Just under 70% of deaths were in five countries: Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Sahel region alone had more than half.¹
• Deaths in the West rose 280% to 57, including 15 killed at Bondi Beach, Sydney, in December 2025 by two jihadist gunmen.¹
• The report calls the Bondi Beach shooting, in which two jihadist extremists killed 15 people in a targeted attack on Jewish Australians, Australia's worst terrorist attack and its deadliest mass shooting since 1996.¹
• Of 990 terrorism deaths in the West since 2007, 527 (53%) came in religiously motivated attacks, and the report says almost all were caused by jihadists.¹
• Only 1% of the 2025 deaths happened outside conflict-affected countries.¹
• Where the victims' religion could be identified, Muslims suffered between 82% and 97% of terrorism deaths over 2007 to 2011, according to US government data.⁴

What is the Global Terrorism Index? #

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a yearly ranking of how much terrorism affects 163 countries. The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) publishes it from Sydney. The 2026 edition is the 13th and covers 2025.¹

Each country gets a score from 0 to 10. The score uses incidents, deaths, injuries and hostages over five years, with recent years counting more. The data come from TerrorismTracker, a database run by the risk company Dragonfly, which logs incidents reported in open sources since January 2007.¹

Because the score looks back five years, a country can stay high after violence falls. Israel is still tenth, mainly because of the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, which the report counts as 1,150 of the 8,654 terrorism deaths worldwide that year.¹

What does the Global Terrorism Index 2026 say? #

Terrorism fell sharply in 2025, but it became more concentrated and, in the West, more deadly. Deaths fell 28% and attacks nearly 22%. Eighty-one countries improved and only 19 got worse, the fewest ever.¹

The year had no mass-casualty attack on the scale of earlier years. The deadliest killed 120 people, in Burkina Faso on 9 October 2025, and was claimed by JNIM. In 2023 one attack killed more than 1,000 people.¹

IEP does not expect the fall to last. It warns that "a rise in terrorism is likely" given new conflicts, among them the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan that began in February 2026 and the US-Israeli war on Iran from 28 February.¹

Which countries are most affected? #

Pakistan is the most affected country, followed by Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. Six of the ten worst-hit countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, which IEP calls the global epicentre of terrorism.¹

Source for the whole table: Global Terrorism Index 2026.¹

Islamist groups are the main killers in eight of the ten. Colombia is the exception, and in Israel the attacks went unclaimed. Pakistan, Niger, Mali, Somalia and Syria have overwhelmingly Muslim populations, so the victims there are mostly Muslims too, though the Index does not count them by religion.

Outside the top ten, the full global terrorism country list shows Afghanistan 11th (out of the top ten for the first time), India 13th, the United States 28th, Germany 29th, Australia 31st (up 14 places after Bondi), France 35th and the United Kingdom 38th.¹ The guides to jihadism in Africa and to the Taliban, TTP and Pakistan cover the two main centres.

Which are the deadliest terrorist groups? #

The four deadliest groups in 2025 were Islamic State, JNIM, TTP and al-Shabaab, and all four are Islamist. Together they caused 3,869 deaths, and IEP attributed 89% of all deaths to some named group.¹

Source: Global Terrorism Index 2026.¹

IEP counts Islamic State as one organisation, including its provinces such as ISWAP and Islamic State Khorasan.¹ Our guides explain each group: Islamic State, the list of Islamist terrorist groups and the Taliban and TTP.

Does the Global Terrorism Index count terrorism by religion? #

No. The Index ranks countries and groups, and it labels attacks by motive as religious, political or without a clear ideology. It does not record the religion of attackers or victims, and we found no such breakdown in the 2026 report.¹ So any figure for "Islamic terrorism statistics" or "terrorism statistics by religion" has to be assembled from other data and read carefully.

What the data can say about global terrorism by religion #

• Groups. The four deadliest groups in 2025 were Islamist, and they caused 70% of deaths. That is a statement about named organisations, not about Muslims.¹
• The West. Religiously motivated attacks were just over 10% of attacks in the West since 2007 but caused 53% of the deaths. Almost all of those deaths were caused by jihadist groups or people with a jihadist ideology.¹
• Europe. In the EU in 2025 jihadist attacks killed 5 of the 6 people killed in terrorist attacks, and 347 of 486 terrorism arrests (71%) were of jihadist suspects.⁶
• Britain. On 30 June 2026, 157 of the 275 people in custody for terrorism offences (57%) were classed as Islamist.⁷

What cuts the other way #

• Not all terrorism is Islamist. Politically motivated attacks rose by almost 20% in 2025. South America accounted for 75% of the world's deaths linked to political ideology, mostly from FARC dissidents and the ELN in Colombia. IEP also reports extreme right-wing activity in the West up 250% over five years.¹
• The British figure is shifting. The Islamist share of terrorism prisoners was 57% in June 2026, down from 61% a year earlier, while extreme right-wing cases were 29%.⁷
• Western tolls are small beside the war zones. The whole West had 57 deaths in 2025, against 1,139 in Pakistan alone, and EU jihadist attacks killed 5 people.^{1 6}

Who are the victims? #

Mostly Muslims. In the NCTC statistics for 2011, where the victims' religion could be determined, Muslims suffered 82% to 97% of terrorism deaths over the previous five years. In 2011 Sunni extremists were behind nearly 56% of all attacks and about 70% of all deaths.⁴ A West Point study of al-Qaeda found that "the vast majority of al-Qa'ida's victims are Muslims".⁵

The same holds in 2025. The deaths in Pakistan, Niger, Mali, Somalia and Syria are overwhelmingly in Muslim societies. Christians are also targeted: IEP notes that Islamic State's Congolese branch, the ADF, attacked villages, churches, hospitals and funerals.¹ Jews were the target at Bondi and in the Manchester synagogue attack of October 2025.¹ For the British picture see Islamist terrorism in the UK.

What did the Global Terrorism Index 2025 say? #

The 2025 edition, covering 2024, reported 7,555 deaths, down 13% on 2023, and named Burkina Faso the most affected country for the second year running. The Sahel had 51% of all deaths, almost ten times its 2019 level, and Islamic State's affiliates were the deadliest group, with 1,805 deaths.²

IEP later revised its 2024 total to 7,714, so compare years using the 2026 report's own table above.¹

What is the Global Terrorism Database? #

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is a separate project run by START at the University of Maryland. It holds more than 200,000 incidents from 1970 through 2020, according to its own page.³ It is a standard source for historical research, but it cannot tell you about 2025. The GTI 2026 uses TerrorismTracker instead, so do not mix figures from the two.

How reliable are terrorism statistics? #

Reasonably reliable for trends, weaker for detail. Three limits matter.

• Attribution. Groups often do not claim attacks. The real number of attacks by Islamic State is probably higher than the 488 counted, because many attacks in its areas are unattributed.¹
• Definitions. Datasets differ on what counts as terrorism, and a war zone blurs the line. Compare GTI figures with GTI figures only.
• Motive. Many attackers mix religious, political and personal reasons, and a "no clear ideology" label may hide Islamist influence or the reverse.

For the pattern of radicalisation behind the Western figures, see how Islamist radicalisation works. For Australia, see Islamism and terrorism in Australia.

Questions people ask #

What is the Global Terrorism Index 2026? #

It is the 13th edition of the Institute for Economics and Peace's yearly ranking of terrorism's impact on 163 countries. Published in March 2026, it covers 2025 and scores each country from 0 to 10 on deaths, attacks, injuries and hostages over five years. Its data come from the TerrorismTracker database, which records incidents reported in open sources since 2007.

Which country is number one in the Global Terrorism Index 2026? #

Pakistan, with a score of 8.574, the first time it has topped the ranking. It recorded 1,139 terrorism deaths in 2025, the most since 2013, largely from the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army. Burkina Faso, first in 2023 and 2024, is second. Niger, Nigeria and Mali follow.

What do Islamic terrorism statistics show? #

There is no single official share of terrorism that is Islamist. Four Islamist groups caused 70% of deaths worldwide in 2025. In the West, 53% of terrorism deaths since 2007 came in religiously motivated attacks, almost all jihadist, though those were only about 10% of attacks. Politically motivated and extreme right-wing attacks are also rising.

Who are the main victims of Islamist terrorism? #

Muslims. US government data for 2007 to 2011 put Muslims at 82% to 97% of terrorism deaths where the victims' religion was known, and West Point researchers found the vast majority of al-Qaeda's victims were Muslims. Today the worst-hit countries, such as Pakistan, Niger, Mali, Somalia and Syria, have mostly Muslim populations.

How is Australia ranked in the Global Terrorism Index 2026? #

Australia is 31st, up 14 places after the Bondi Beach shooting of December 2025. The report says two jihadist extremists killed 15 people in a targeted attack on Jewish Australians, making it Australia's worst terrorist attack and its deadliest mass shooting since 1996. For the wider Australian record, see Islamism and terrorism in Australia.

What is the difference between the Global Terrorism Index and the Global Terrorism Database? #

The Index is an annual ranking by the Institute for Economics and Peace that currently uses TerrorismTracker data and covers 2025. The Database is a separate event archive from START at the University of Maryland, covering 1970 to 2020. They count differently, so their totals should not be compared directly.

How many people died from terrorism in 2025? #

The Global Terrorism Index 2026 counted 5,582 deaths from 2,944 attacks, down 28% from 7,714 deaths in 2024. Deaths in the West rose 280% to 57. Terrorism deaths peaked at 10,882 in 2015, so 2025 was the lowest year since the series began in 2007, though IEP warns the fall may not last.

Related guides #

• Islamist terrorism: the global picture: the hub for all our terrorism guides.
• Islamist terrorist groups: who they are and how the UK, US and Australia list them.
• Islamic State: leaders, fighters and provinces in 2026.
• Jihadism in Africa: the Sahel, Nigeria, Somalia and Mozambique.
• Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe: a list of attacks and Europol's numbers.
• What is an Islamist?: the ideology behind the violence, in its own words.

Cite as: The Analyst, "Global Terrorism Index 2026: Deaths, Countries, Groups", Fighting Islamists, updated 20 October 2026. https://fightingislamists.com/global-terrorism-index.html

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