Statistics on terrorism

Statistics on Terrorism

last updated 6 May 2013

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
year	incidents	fatalities	injuries
1968	150	124	220	1969	189	55	200
1970	300	128	220
1971	241	35	230
1972	528	147	420
1973	323	120	550
1974	429	304	1,080
1975	349	258	700
1976	468	406	920
1977	428	245	460
1978	544	438	680
1979	441	686	580
1980	499	486	1,060
1981	489	164	770
1982	500	129	750
1983	506	641	1,273
1984	565	329	1,000
1985	635	816	1,217
1986	612	591	1,708
1987	665	623	2,272
1988	605	643	1,131
1989	375	411	420
1990	437	218	675
1991	565	102	242
1992	363	91	636
1993	431	109	1,393
1994	322	314	663
1995	440	177	6,291
1996	296	314	2,911
1997	304	221	693
1998	274	741	5,953
1999	395	233	706
2000	426	405	800
2001	355	3,295	2,283
2002	205	725	2,013
2003	208	625	3,646
2004	651	1,907	6,704
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

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) >incidentsfatalitiesinjuriesincidentsfatalitiesinjuries align="right"> rowspan=44> 132 32 191 155 12 110 215 105 161 150 66 91 171 191 166 193 72 504 237 229 690 221 102 556 325 346 805 242 80 299 242 263 405 271 2901,060 268 156 332 318 3291,187 384 188 637 317 5891,045 326 182 502 438 6881,255 379 3461,221 355 3581,219 377 5931,869 367 170 507 302 121 366 436 175 284 310 154 751 320 4642,806 316 4251,087 273 4596,504 268 462 6,507 246 5512,957 237 570 2,957 183 258 884 182 259 933 161 4445,3481,2852,171 8,201 125 65 1211,172 874 2,534 106 47 951,150 783 2,570 2053,1843,3731,7324,571 6,403 298 9702,9572,6482,763 7,349 276 4701,7661,8972,346 6,200 3,252 7,47417,309 395 7322,0232,6475,06610,860 10,87313,88924,789 308 550 8644,9618,19115,257 14,36720,45338,283 137 251 3434,9819,17516,006 14,41522,72044,103 11,66315,70933,901 10,96815,31132,660 11,64113,19330,684 10,28312,53325,903

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/).

Last modified 6 May 2013.
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