The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a report published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), and was developed by IT entrepreneur and IEP's founder Steve Killelea. The index provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2000. It is an attempt to systematically rank the nations of the world according to terrorist activity. The index combines a number of factors associated with terrorist attacks to build an explicit picture of the impact of terrorism, illustrating trends, and providing a data series for analysis by researchers and policymakers. It produces a composite score in order to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism.
Early editions of the GTI were based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) which is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland. The GTD has codified over 190,000 cases of terrorism, it covers 163 countries, consisting 99.7% of the world's population. The GTI no longer indicates that it relies on data from the GTD. The data behind the GTI are available to download from IEP, but there does not seem to be a codebook indicating what definition of terrorism is used to produce the data.
The GTI was developed in consultation with the Global Peace Index expert panel. The aim is to examine trends and to help inform a positive and practical debate about the future of terrorism and the required policy responses.
Methodology There is no single internationally accepted definition of what constitutes terrorism. IEP previously accepted the terminology and definitions agreed to by the authors of the GTD, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) researchers and its advisory panel. The GTI therefore defined terrorism as "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a state and non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation". This definition recognises that terrorism is not only the physical act of an attack, but also the psychological impact it has on a society for many years after.
In order to be included as an incident in the GTD the act has to be: "an intentional act of violence or threat of violence by a non-state actor". This means an incident has to meet three criteria in order for it to be counted as a terrorist act:
The incident must be intentional – the result of a conscious calculation on the part of a perpetrator. The incident must entail some level of violence or threat of violence – including property damage, as well as violence against people. The perpetrators of the incidents must be sub-national actors. This database does not include acts of state terrorism.
It is not clear that the GTI still uses this definition, and the GTI does not appear to define terrorism in its 2026 report.
Indicators and weighting
The GTI score for a country in a given year is based on a unique scoring system to account for the relative impact of incidents in the year. There are four indicators counted in each country's yearly score:
Total number of terrorist incidents in a given year Total number of fatalities caused by terrorism in a given year Total number of injuries caused by terrorism in a given year The approximate level of total property damage from terrorist incidents in a given year
Each of the indicators is weighted differently:
Dimension Weight Total number of incidents 1 Total number of fatalities 3 Total number of injuries 0.5 Sum of property damages measure Between 0 and 3 depending on severity
The greatest weighting is thus in general attributed to a fatality. The property damage measure is further disaggregated into four bands depending on the measured scope of the property damage inflicted by one incident. These bandings are shown in the table below, whereby incidents causing less than US$1 million are accorded a weight of 1, between $1 million and $1 billion, and more than $1 billion. A great majority of incidents are coded in the GTD as an 'unknown' level of property damage, thus scoring nil, with 'catastrophic' events being extremely rare.
Damage level Weight Unknown 0 Minor (likely < $1 million) 1 Major (likely between $1 million and $1 billion) 2 Catastrophic (likely > $1 billion) 3
Example of a country's indicator weighting
To assign a relative number to how a country has been directly impacted by terrorism in any given year, for every incident recorded, the GTI calculates a weighted sum of all indicators. To illustrate, the table below depicts a hypothetical country's score for a given year:
Dimension Weight # of records for the given year Score Total number of incidents 1 21 21 Total number of fatalities 3 36 108 Total number of injuries 0.5 53 26.5 Sum of property damages measure (depending on severity) 0-3 20 40 Total raw score 195.5
Final score
A five-year weighted average is applied to reflect the lingering psychological effect of terrorist acts over time.
Year Weight Reference year 16 Previous year 8 Two years ago 4 Three years ago 3 Four years ago 1
The GTI reports are titled by their publication year. The index is calculated up to the preceding year, e.g. the reference year of the 2020 GTI is 2019.
The resulting raw scores are then quasi-logarithmically transformed onto a scale of 0–10 by way of 20 bands. A raw score of corresponds to a GTI of 0. The next 20 steps corresponding to on the GTI scale are defined by
,
where are the steps in the raw score, is the lowest recorded raw score, and the highest recorded raw score.
GTI is interpolated linearly between these steps.
By country Legend
(Note: this graph is based on how much terrorism affects each country, not how much terrorism it causes)
+ 2026 Global Terrorism Index Ranking Rank Country Score Rank change 1 8.574 1 2 8.324 1 3 7.816 2 4 7.792 2 5 7.586 1 6 7.545 3 7 7.391 8 7.171 4 9 7.116 5 10 6.79 2 11 6.678 2 12 6.593 2 13 6.428 2 14 6.245 3 15 6.022 1 16 5.822 3 17 5.593 18 5.477 19 5.434 8 20 5.275 6 21 5.088 1 22 4.8 2 23 4.719 2 24 4.714 6 25 4.653 2 26 4.625 7 27 4.553 5 28 4.521 6 29 4.447 1 30 4.305 5 31 3.732 14 32 3.465 3 33 3.361 2 34 3.25 1 35 3.224 6 36 3.212 4 37 3.063 20 38 2.936 2 39 2.927 8 40 2.788 5 41 2.602 10 42 2.286 6 43 2.282 6 44 2.268 6 45 2.261 6 46 1.839 4 47 1.766 5 48 1.682 2 49 1.572 5 50 1.522 7 51 1.498 34 52 1.475 10 53 1.333 5 54 1.311 5 55 1.198 3 56 1.136 3 57 1.092 3 58 1.07 2 59 1.007 4 60 0.999 3 61 0.925 2 62 0.909 1 63 0.888 1 64 0.794 1 65 0.782 2 66 0.782 20 67 0.749 3 68 0.749 2 69 0.725 1 70 0.72 10 71 0.702 11 72 0.648 6 73 0.616 2 74 0.582 1 75 0.571 2 76 0.556 4 77 0.506 1 78 0.465 1 79 0.455 2 80 0.443 5 81 0.423 1 82 0.423 1 83 0.423 1 84 0.423 20 85 0.396 1 86 0.333 1 87 0.325 2 88 0.288 10 89 0.288 18 90 0.233 1 91 0.233 1 92 0.176 1 93 0.123 1 94 0.123 1 95 0.114 96 0.114 3 97 0.059 1 98 0.044 1 99 0.03 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 2 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1 100 0 1
Economic impact of terrorism The economic impact of terrorism is calculated using IEP's cost of violence methodology.
The model includes both the direct and indirect costs, such as the lost life-time earnings, cost of medical treatments and property destruction from incidents of terrorism. The direct costs include those borne by the victim of the terrorist act and associated expenditure, such as medical spending. The indirect costs include lost productivity and earning as well as the psychological trauma to the victims, their families and friends.
The analysis presents conservative estimates of the economic impact of terrorism and does not include variables for which detailed appropriate data was not available. For instance, the analysis does not include the impact on business, the cost of fear from terrorism or the cost of counterterrorism.
The global economic impact of terrorism reached US$89.6 billion in 2015, decreasing 15% from its 2014 level.
There have been three peaks in the economic impact of terrorism since the year 2000 and they are linked to the three major waves of terrorism. The first large increase in the economic impact of terrorism happened in 2001, when the attacks of September 11 in New York City and Washington, D.C., took place. The second peak was in 2007 at the height of the Iraq war. The 2007 increase is mainly attributed to al-Qa'ida affiliated terrorist groups and coincided with the coalition troop surge in Iraq. The third wave started in 2012 and is still continuing, with the economic impact of terrorism peaking at US$105.6 billion in 2014. The increase in the last four years was mainly driven by increases in terrorism in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Publications by year The Institute for Economics and Peace has published twelve editions of the Global Terrorism Index to date. The most recent report was released in March 2026.
2026 Global Terrorism Index report 2026 2025 Global Terrorism Index report 2025 2024 Global Terrorism Index report 2024
2023 Global Terrorism Index report 2023
2022 Global Terrorism Index report 2022
2020 Global Terrorism Index report 2020
2019 Global Terrorism Index report 2019
2018 Global Terrorism Index report 2018
2017 The fifth edition of the Global Terrorism Index was published in November 2017. The study covered analyses of 163 countries. The global GTI scored deteriorated by four percent from 2015 to 2016.
Overall, deaths from terrorism have fallen for the second consecutive year, resulting in a 22 percent decrease since the peak in 2014. At an all-time high, 106 countries experienced at least one terrorist attack. Of these, 77 countries recorded at least one death, an increase from 65 countries in 2015.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, and Pakistan remain the top five countries most affected by terrorism. However, Nigeria also saw the greatest reduction in deaths. In 2016, deaths attributed to Boko Haram decreased by 80 percent, however, deaths attributed to ISIL increased by 49 percent. Together these five countries accounted for three-quarters of all deaths from terrorism in 2016.
OECD countries have experienced a rise in terrorism, accounting for one percent of global deaths from terrorism in 2016. In 2010 OECD countries accounted for just 0.1 percent of deaths. Attacks in OECD countries have shifted tactics since 2014 to utilize simpler methods against non-traditional targets. Less sophisticated attacks can be executed at a lower cost and can be more difficult to detect. Positively, the first six months of 2017 have recorded 82 deaths from terrorism, lower than the 265 deaths in 2016.
2016
The fourth edition of Global Terrorism Index was published in November 2016. The study covered analysis of 163 countries. Overall, the global GTI score decreased by six per cent.
In 2015, the number of deaths from terrorism decreased by ten percent, the first decline since 2010. However, the 29,376 deaths recorded still rank 2015 as the second deadliest year on record. While much attention has been devoted to ISIL, the Taliban recorded its deadliest year in Afghanistan.
As with the past three years, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria suffered the highest levels of terrorism, accounting for 72 per cent of all deaths from terrorism in 2015. Large decreases in fatalities in Iraq and Nigeria accounted for a large portion of the worldwide decrease.