Despite being the target of 9/11 terror strike that shook the world more than a decade ago, North America is the least likely region to suffer from terrorism, said the inaugural Global Terrorism Index (GTI) launched on Tuesday.
Western Europeans are nineteen times more likely to be killed in a terrorist attack than North Americans, often perceived as a major target for terror strikes, according to a study into international terrorism over the past decade, conducted by the non-profit research organization Institute for Economics and Peace.
The U.S. has had the largest improvement in GTI score from 2002-2011, dropping from 1st to 41st in the index, as the effects of 9/11 dissipated.
The number of terrorist incidents has increased virtually every year since 9/11, but terrorism fatalities have fallen by 25 percent since 2007, which coincides with the wind down of the Iraq war.
Despite this Iraq was still the country most likely to suffer from terrorism in 2011. During the last decade, the Middle East and North Africa region have seen the highest number of fatalities due to terrorism, closely followed by Asia-Pacific.
The study says al-Qaeda is much weakened and responsible for only one of 4,564 attacks carried out in 2011, a data that does not include hundreds of murders carried out by al-Qaeda-linked terror outfits active in Yemen and North Africa.
The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) claimed that the GTI is the first index to rank countries on the impact of terrorism and analyses the associated economic and social dimensions. The index is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database, which is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), headquartered at the University of Maryland.
The index scores 158 countries over the last ten years by aggregating a series of indicators such as the number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, injuries and property damage.
The GTI says intergroup cohesion, human rights, group grievances, corruption and governance are correlated with terrorism. Among its key findings, the study argues that low-income countries are less affected by terrorism than lower middle-income countries, indicating that poverty is not necessarily a main cause of terrorism. Private citizens and property are the most common targets of terrorism while the military is targeted in only four percent of attacks.
Only 31 out of 158 countries ranked have not experienced a terrorist attack since 2002, says the report.
The U.S., Algeria and Colombia had the biggest improvements over the last ten years.
Most terrorist attacks occur in a wider conflict situation. The index shows that global terrorism only started to increase after the escalation of the Iraq war, with a fourfold increase recorded in the number of global terrorist incidents since the start of the Iraq invasion. This was subsequently followed by further increasing waves of terrorism in Afghanistan and then in Pakistan eighteen months later.
"Terrorism is one of the most emotive subjects of our time. The impact of terrorism does seem to have plateaued over the last three years but is still unacceptably high. The aim of the GTI is to systematically analyse and quantify the phenomena" said Steve Killelea, Executive Chairman of IEP. "The GTI examines trends to help inform a positive and practical debate about the future of terrorism and appropriate policy responses," he added.
In the decade since 9/11, fatalities from terrorist attacks have increased by 195 percent, incidents by 460 percent and injuries by 224 percent. Interestingly, the seven countries that have suffered the most fatalities due to terrorism since 9/11 account for nearly three quarters of deaths in this period, with Iraqis suffering the most.
In 2011, Iraq was the country most impacted from terrorism, followed by Pakistan and Afghanistan. Middle East, India, and Russia were the other areas most impacted by terrorism during this period.
There were 7,473 terrorism-inflicted fatalities in 2011, which is 25 percent less than in 2007.
Khalid Mahmood, Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tackling Terrorism, welcomed the launch of the Global Terrorism Index," saying that "it promises to be a useful tool for policymakers in their efforts to track and tackle terrorism."
Killelea concluded by saying that "the GTI highlights that many of the countries suffering the most from terrorism have also suffered from foreign military intervention." He urged policymakers to "use the findings of this report to help redefine tackling terrorism strategies and help shift focus towards peace."
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.