National Current Affairs
Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2026
- 25 Mar 2026
- 3 min read
Why in News?
The Global Terrorism Index 2026 has been released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), providing a global assessment of the impact and trends of terrorism across countries.
Key Points
- About: The Global Terrorism Index is an annual report that measures the impact of terrorism in 163 countries, analysing trends, patterns, and the global distribution of terrorist activity.
- IEP is headquartered in Sydney.
- GTI is based on data from Dragonfly’s TerrorismTracker database, which maintains detailed and structured records of terrorist incidents reported in open sources worldwide since January 2007.
- Factors:
- A total number of terrorist incidents in a given year
- A total number of fatalities caused by terrorists in a given year
- A total number of injuries caused by terrorists in a given year
- A total number of hostages caused by terrorists in a given year
- Methodology: Each of these factors is assigned a weight ranging from zero to three, and a five-year weighted average is used to capture the prolonged psychological impact of terrorist incidents over time.
- Most Affected Country: Pakistan ranked first in the Global Terrorism Index 2026, indicating the highest impact of terrorism among all countries.
- India is ranked 13th (with a score of 6.428) in terms of the impact of terrorism worldwide.
- Regional Pattern: The Sahel region accounted for more than half of all terrorism-related deaths in 2025, compared to less than 1% in 2007.
- Sub-Saharan Africa continued to be the global epicentre of terrorism, the region showed some improvement, with terrorism-related deaths declining in ten countries while increasing in only four.
- Nearly 70% of terrorism-related deaths occurred in just five countries: Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded the largest increases in terrorism-related deaths, with rises of 237 and 102 deaths, respectively.
- Deadliest Terror Group: The Islamic State (IS) remains among the deadliest terrorist organisations globally, operating across several countries.
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