Statistics on Global Terrorism

last updated 2 August 2008

Note on following figures: red indicates U.S. DOS data, blue indicates RAND/MIPT data (incomplete for 1998-2004, see table below for more recent figures).

Statistics on terrorism

Note: Due to varying definitions and completeness of reporting, the data below may not constitute reliable time series. This is especially true for data from 2000-2007. On the specific series:

The U.S. Department of State figures (from Patterns of Global Terrorism and Country Reports on Terrorism) are affected by multiple changes in the DOS interpretation of Palestinian terrorism in Israel and counting of terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following replacement of the annual Patterns of Global Terrorism reports with annual Country Reports on Terrorism in 2004, reported statistics (beginning in 2005) are collected by the National Counterterrorism Center and are based on different methodologies and definitions than statistics used in previous reports.
The RAND series from 1968 to 1997 is supplemented by MIPT/RAND data from 1998 to 2006. MIPT also includes data on domestic terrorism, which is also listed. MIPT data on injuries is known to be incomplete, particularly in regard to the 9/11 attacks. Post-2000 data is also particularly affected by interpretations of terrorism in Israel and Iraq, which account for most incidents and casualties. In early 2008 funding support for open access to the MIPT/RAND database ended, and access is currently by subscription only.

year	international terrorism (U.S. DOS figures)			int'l. and domestic terrorism (U.S. NCTC figures)			international terrorism (RAND/MIPT figures)			int'l. and domestic terrorism (RAND/MIPT figures)
year	incidents	fatalities	injuries	incidents	fatalities	injuries	incidents	fatalities	injuries
1968		150	124	220						132	32	191
1969		189	55	200						155	12	110
1970		300	128	220						215	105	161
1971		241	35	230						150	66	91
1972		528	147	420						171	191	166
1973		323	120	550						193	72	504
1974		429	304	1,080						237	229	690
1975		349	258	700						221	102	556
1976		468	406	920						325	346	805
1977		428	245	460						242	80	299
1978		544	438	680						242	263	405
1979		441	686	580						271	290	1,060
1980		499	486	1,060						268	156	332
1981		489	164	770						318	329	1,187
1982		500	129	750						384	188	637
1983		506	641	1,273						317	589	1,045
1984		565	329	1,000						326	182	502
1985		635	816	1,217						438	688	1,255
1986		612	591	1,708						379	346	1,221
1987		665	623	2,272						355	358	1,219
1988		605	643	1,131						377	593	1,869
1989		375	411	420						367	170	507
1990		437	218	675						302	121	366
1991		565	102	242						436	175	284
1992		363	91	636						310	154	751
1993		431	109	1,393						320	464	2,806
1994		322	314	663						316	425	1,087
1995		440	177	6,291						273	459	6,504	268	462	6,507
1996		296	314	2,911						246	551	2,957	237	570	2,957
1997		304	221	693						183	258	884	182	259	933
1998		274	741	5,953						161	444	5,348	1,285	2,171	8,201
1999		395	233	706						125	65	121	1,172	874	2,534
2000		426	405	800						106	47	95	1,150	783	2,570
2001		355	3,295	2,283						205	3,184	3,373	1,732	4,571	6,403
2002		205	725	2,013						298	970	2,957	2,648	2,763	7,349
2003		208	625	3,646						276	470	1,766	1,897	2,346	6,200
2004		651	1,907	6,704		3,259	7,902	19,502		395	732	2,023	2,647	5,066	10,860
2005						11,156	14,616	24,853		308	550	864	4,961	8,191	15,257
2006						14,570	20,872	38,455		137	251	343	4,981	9,175	16,006
2007						14,499	22,685	44,310

Sources:

National Counterterrorism Center, Worldwide Incidents Tracking System, on line at NCTC (http://wits.nctc.gov/).
U.S. Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism annual reports 1983-2003, Patterns of International Terrorism annual reports 1980-1982, International Terrorism annual reports 1976-1979, on line at MIPT (http://www.terrorisminfo.mipt.org/Patterns-of-Global-Terrorism.asp).
U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism annual reports 2004-2007, on line at US DOS (http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/).
RAND/MIPT, RAND Terrorism Chronology Database and RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident Database (subscription only), at RAND (http://www.rand.org/ise/projects/terrorismdatabase/).

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