Michael Hanley , Digital Communications,. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. I accept. Which countries have had the most terrorist attacks? Michael Hanley Digital Communications,. Embassy in Baghdad, which resulted in damage to embassy property. Countries in the Gulf region continued to take important steps to combat terrorism. Following the third U.
The ongoing rift between Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt on the other continued to strain regional cooperation and unity of effort, particularly on countering Iranian threats.
Several terrorist groups, most notably Hizballah, continued to operate in Lebanon throughout the year. While Hizballah said it possessed enough PGMs for a confrontation with Israel, it denied missiles were being developed in Lebanon. Israel also uncovered and destroyed multiple tunnels dug by Hizballah under the border into Israel that could have been used for terrorist attacks between December and January Although Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza and the West Bank continued to threaten Israel, Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces continued their coordination in the West Bank in an effort to mitigate violence.
In addition to continued terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, South Asia in saw a volatile mix of insurgent attacks punctuated by major incidents of terrorism in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir now known as the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and in Sri Lanka.
A February 14 suicide bombing attack against an Indian paramilitary convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir led to military hostilities and heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.
While Pakistan continued to experience terrorist attacks, there were fewer attacks and casualties than in , continuing an overall decline. Pakistan took modest steps in to counter terror financing and restrain India-focused militant groups from conducting large-scale attacks following the February attack on a security convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir linked to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed JeM. Pakistan took action against some externally focused groups, including indicting Lashkar e-Tayyiba LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and associates in three separate terrorism financing cases.
However, Pakistan remained a safe harbor for other regionally focused terrorist groups. It allowed groups targeting Afghanistan, including the Afghan Taliban and affiliated HQN, as well as groups targeting India, including LeT and its affiliated front organizations, and Jaish-e-Mohammed JeM , to operate from its territory. Pakistan, however, did make some positive contributions to the Afghanistan peace process, such as encouraging Taliban reductions in violence.
Pakistan made some progress toward meeting the Action Plan requirements for the FATF, allowing it to avoid being blacklisted, but did not complete all Action Plan items in In August, India amended the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of to authorize the designation of individuals as terrorists — which it did a month later by designating four terrorists, including the leaders of LeT and JeM. In April, ISIS-inspired terrorists conducted sophisticated suicide bombing attacks against churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
In Maldives, the Solih administration continues to make progress bolstering its CT efforts. The Maldivian government also passed an amendment strengthening its Anti-Terrorism Act and designated 17 terrorist organizations in September.
Central Asian countries remained concerned about the potential spillover of terrorism from Afghanistan, as well as the potential threat posed by the return of their citizens who traveled to Iraq or Syria to fight with terrorist groups, including ISIS. Between January and June, the Kazakhstan government led the world in FTF repatriations by bringing back Kazakhstani fighters and family members from Syria, prosecuting those suspected of participating in terrorist activity abroad, and providing rehabilitation and reintegration services to the remainder.
Also in , the Uzbekistan government repatriated FTF family members from Iraq and Syria, mostly women and children, while the Tajikistan government repatriated In Colombia, an estimated 2, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC dissidents who never demobilized, left the peace process, or are new recruits, continued violent attacks, primarily to enable narcotics trafficking and other criminal activities.
While travel of FTFs from the Western Hemisphere to conflict zones was limited in , the potential return of these battle-tested terrorists remained a concern. Many Latin American countries have porous borders, limited law enforcement capabilities, and established smuggling routes. Commercial hubs in the TBA and Panama remained regional nodes for money laundering and vulnerable to terrorist financing.
Corruption, weak government institutions, insufficient interagency cooperation, weak or non-existent legislation, and a general lack of resources likewise remained obstacles to improving security. Nevertheless, some Western Hemisphere countries made significant progress in their counterterrorism efforts in and strengthened regional cooperation against terrorism. Cuba and Venezuela continued to provide permissive environments for terrorists.
In Venezuela, individuals linked to FARC dissidents who remain committed to terrorism notwithstanding the peace accord and the ELN, as well as Hizballah sympathizers, were present in the country. Nicolas Maduro has openly welcomed former FARC leaders who announced a return to terrorist activities.
Members of the ELN who were in Havana to conduct peace talks with the Colombian government since also remained in Cuba. Multiple fugitives who committed or supported acts of terrorism in the United States also continued to live freely in Cuba. Several countries in the region took steps in to designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization. Argentina developed a new sanctions regime and used it to designate the entirety of Hizballah and individuals specifically connected to the and bombings of the Israeli Embassy and Argentine Israelite Mutual Association Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
Paraguay designated terrorist organizations and individuals, in particular targeting Hizballah, and is identifying possible sanctions against designated entities. In Peru, the government continued efforts to retry Hizballah operative Muhammad Ghaleb Hamdar after a Peruvian court previously acquitted him of terrorism charges in Argentina hosted the Second Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial in July, which included 18 participating countries.
In November , the RSM held its first experts meeting in Asuncion, Paraguay, bringing together officials from intelligence, law enforcement, border security, financial intelligence, financial regulatory, and foreign affairs agencies from the four member countries. By facilitating communication among points of contact designated by each member state, countries of the Western Hemisphere will be able to respond more effectively to terrorist threats.
This report provides a snapshot of events during relevant to countries designated as State Sponsors of Terrorism. It does not constitute a new announcement regarding such designations. To designate a country as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, the Secretary of State must determine that the government of such country has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.
Once a country is designated, it remains a State Sponsor of Terrorism until the designation is rescinded in accordance with statutory criteria.
A wide range of sanctions is imposed as a result of a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation, including:. The use of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear CBRN materials and expertise remained a terrorist threat in The international community has established numerous international partnerships to counter the CBRN threat from terrorists and other nonstate actors.
The United States routinely provides technical and financial assistance and training to partner nations and international organizations to help strengthen their abilities to adequately protect and secure CBRN—applicable expertise, technologies, and material. Today, the GP has expanded its membership to 30 countries and the European Union and remains a vital forum for countries to exchange information on national priorities for CBRN programmatic efforts worldwide and coordinate assistance for these efforts.
The United States continues to support the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA Division of Nuclear Security, which helps member states develop the capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to threats of nuclear terrorism through the development of guidance as well as the provision of training, technical advice, peer reviews, and other advisory services. The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism GICNT is an international partnership of 89 nations and six official observer organizations dedicated to strengthening global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to a nuclear terrorist incident.
In , partner nations hosted eight multilateral activities that raised awareness of the threat of terrorist use of nuclear and radioactive materials and provided opportunities for countries to share information, expertise, and best practices in a voluntary, nonbinding framework.
In response to the threat of transnational terrorists conducting chemical weapons CW attacks using unrestricted, commercially available material, the GTR collaborated with security forces around the world to train law enforcement in partner countries to detect and prevent CW attacks against vulnerable transportation hubs, such as railways and subways. To help partner countries intercept foreign terrorist fighters FTFs attempting to carry out WMD plots, the GTR continued to partner with international law enforcement organizations to augment an existing FTF law enforcement database with WMD—applicable information, and trained partner countries to help populate the database and use the information to interdict WMD— capable FTFs.
The GTR also worked with personnel from Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Nigeria, the Philippines, and other countries to promote the adoption of security measures to prevent individuals or nonstate actors from acquiring potentially weaponizable chemical, biological, and nuclear material and technology. As part of a core national security strategy to combat ISIS and other terrorist organizations, a key objective of the EXBS Program is to provide substantive knowledge, skills, and tools to prevent state and nonstate actors from acquiring WMD, conventional arms, and explosives or using those materials against U.
To achieve this objective, EXBS continued to train partner governments in the Middle Eastern and North African regions to detect, interdict, and counter the materials, technologies, and tactics that terrorists could use to carry out low-technology attacks on public transportation. Additionally, in , EXBS began development of curriculum for partner nation security forces to address threats posed by improvised threats. EXBS partnered with CT and the interagency to engage with key partners on aviation security programming.
This landmark decision helps guide the work of OPCW in deterring chemical weapons use and responding if they are used. The OPCW is considering options for further assistance to States Parties to help prevent the chemical weapons threat posed by nonstate actors and to aid contingency planning of States Parties in the event of a chemical weapons attack.
As defined by section f d of Title 22 of the U. In , terrorists used under-governed areas throughout Somalia as safe havens to plan, conduct, and facilitate operations within Somalia, including mass-casualty bombings in major urban areas, and attacks in neighboring countries. Somali law enforcement took several actions in that led to prosecutions of individuals suspected of terrorism-related activities.
Despite these critical gaps in its counterterrorism strategy, the Somali government remained a committed partner and vocal advocate for U. With the notable exception of targeted operations carried out by U. As seen in previous years, al-Shabaab kept some of its safe haven in the Jubba River Valley as a primary base of operations for plotting and launching attacks.
The group retained control of several towns throughout the Jubaland region, including Jilib and Kunyo Barow, and maintained operations in the Gedo region to exploit the porous Kenya-Somalia border and attack targets in Kenya. The Kenyan government maintains a strong presence throughout the border region. In northern Somalia, ISIS-linked fighters used the limited safe haven they established in Puntland to launch small-scale attacks. Somalia remained heavily dependent on regional and international partners to support almost all major security functions throughout the country, making little progress on improving interagency coordination to limit terrorist transit through the country.
According to independent sources and non-governmental organizations engaged in demining activities on the ground, there was little cause for concern regarding the presence of WMD in Somalia. The Lake Chad Region. These safe havens are reduced from the territory BH controlled in Forces from Nigeria and other members of the Multinational Joint Task Force Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger lack the capability to clear these safe havens, and they lack the capacity and resources to secure borders and hold and administer liberated territory.
No government in the Lake Chad Region was known to support or facilitate the proliferation or trafficking of WMD in or through its territory. The Trans-Sahara. In addition to asymmetric attacks, these groups perpetrated a series of large-scale conventional attacks on both patrols and fixed positions of regional Armed Forces. JNIM successfully inserted itself into long-standing ethnic conflicts such as the Fulani herder versus Dogon farmer conflict over grazing land and water.
In Burkina Faso, the government has failed to stem the tide of violence; attacks increased significantly in compared to The end of in Niger was marked by the largest casualty producing attack on the Nigerien Army to date. There has been a significant influx of Western aid as part of the effort to increase the capacity of the G-5 Sahel Joint Force, of which Burkina Faso is a member. Niger and Chad continue to combat terrorism on their borders. Mauritania has not experienced a terrorist attack since No government in the region was known to support or facilitate the proliferation or trafficking of WMD in or through its territory, although the region remained prone to arms and munitions smuggling.
The Government of Indonesia conducts monitoring and surveillance of suspected terrorist cells in its territory, but acknowledges that a lack of resources hinders its ability to monitor maritime and remote parts of Indonesia, including the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas.
The first trilateral land exercise occurred in North Kalimantan in July The workshop was the first under the auspices of the U. The Royal Malaysian Police special forces unit 69 Komando, which focuses on counterterrorism, search and rescue, and counterinsurgency, participated in a crisis response training exercise in August with U.
Indo-Pacific Command to build capacity on addressing extended hostage rescue scenarios. The Southern Philippines. The Philippine government closely tracked terrorist groups that continue to operate in some areas, particularly in the southern Philippines. The government sustained aggressive military and law enforcement operations to deny safe haven to such groups and prevent the flow of FTFs through its territory.
The government further deepened close counterterrorism cooperation with the United States, enhancing military and law enforcement efforts to address the full spectrum of terrorist threats, including from WMD.
The government welcomed support from the U. Defense Threat Reduction Agency in to help reduce the risk of nonstate actors acquiring or using improvised chemical weapons. International reconstruction assistance focused on Marawi continued, but concerns remained that efforts are not including local stakeholders and adjudicating competing land claims — both factors that terrorists can exploit.
Although the Philippine government possesses the political will to apply security measures against terrorist threats and has consistently partnered with the United States and other nations to build the capacity to do so, it struggles to apply a coordinated whole-of-government approach to prevent terrorism.
North Sinai. Egypt continued to partner with U. At the same time, the Government of Egypt, including the Egyptian Armed Forces, broadened its counterterrorism strategy in Sinai to encompass development and humanitarian projects on the peninsula. The United States remains concerned about the security situation in Sinai and the potential effects on the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping mission located there.
On December 27, KH launched a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base near Kirkuk, killing an American civilian contractor and wounding several U. On December 31, Iran-backed terrorists attacked the U. Embassy in Baghdad, resulting in no casualties but damaging the embassy exterior.
ISIS remained a terrorist threat in Iraq in , carrying out suicide, hit-and-run, and other asymmetric attacks throughout the country. The United States and Iraq also continued their bilateral partnership to counter nuclear smuggling under the framework of the Joint Action Plan on Combating Nuclear and Radioactive Materials Smuggling.
Lebanon remained a safe haven for terrorist groups in Hizballah-controlled areas. Hizballah used these areas for terrorist training, fundraising, financing, and recruitment. The Government of Lebanon did not take actions to disarm Hizballah, which continued to maintain its weapons without the consent of the Lebanese government, contrary to UNSCR The Lebanese government did not have complete control of all regions of the country or fully control its borders with Syria and Israel.
These groups used the Palestinian camps as safe havens to house weapons, shelter wanted criminals, and plan terrorist attacks. The United States worked closely with the Lebanese Armed Forces LAF and Internal Security Forces to counter terrorist threats within Lebanon and along its border with Syria by providing counterterrorism training, military equipment, and weaponry.
In , the LAF and other security services partnered with U. Through most of , GNA-aligned groups maintained control of most of Greater Tripoli, the Western Mountains, and the northwest coastal areas stretching from the Tunisian border to Sirte. LNA-aligned groups controlled the remainder of Libya, including Cyrenaica, and increased their presence in the central and southern districts of Jufra, Kufra, Sabha, and Murzuq.
The GNA, although the internationally recognized government, lacked the capacity and reach to project authority into most of Libya and relied on militias and other armed groups for security in areas it does not have the ability to effectively control.
The GNA had limited ability to eliminate terrorist safe havens, prevent the flow of FTFs, or ensure effective counter-proliferation efforts. Because of the difficulties of controlling the southern and desert borders and a lack of respect for security procedures at air and seaports of entry by foreign state or Libyan substate groups, the GNA remained unable to effectively track flows of FTFs in and out of its territory.
The northwest of the country, as well as portions of the southern coast interior, are beyond Republic of Yemen Government control, severely constraining its ability to prevent terrorist training, funding, recruitment, and transit. In , the UAE began retrograding portions of its forces from Yemen. This left Yemen vulnerable as a transit point for destabilizing weapons, including weapons emanating from Iran.
Despite progress against ISIS-K in late , the Government of National Unity GNU struggled to assert control over this remote terrain, where the population is largely detached from national institutions. The potential for WMD trafficking and proliferation remained a concern. In , the United States and Afghanistan continued to work to finalize a bilateral framework to help Afghanistan enhance its capabilities to prevent, detect, and respond to nuclear and other radioactive material smuggling incidents.
The Afghanistan and U. The government and military acted inconsistently with respect to terrorist safe havens throughout the country. Authorities did not take sufficient action to stop certain terrorist groups and individuals from openly operating in the country.
Pakistan is committed to combating the trafficking of items that could contribute to the development of WMDs and their delivery systems. The peace accord between the Government of Colombia and FARC in led to a normalization of relations, with the latter entering the political sphere.
However, ongoing challenges to peace accord implementation and continued security vacuums have created risk for terrorist activity and attacks on civilians, security forces, and infrastructure in some areas in A troubling number of FARC dissidents, estimated at around 2, individuals who chose not to participate in the peace process or have since abandoned the peace process, continued engaging in terrorist and other criminal activities, particularly in border regions and areas previously controlled by the FARC.
The ELN perpetrated armed attacks across the country in President Duque suspended peace talks with the ELN after assuming office in August , then ended them after the January attack. Improved relations with neighboring Ecuador have led to some increased cooperation on law enforcement issues. Colombia also continued to cooperate and share information with the Panamanian National Border Service. Additionally, the Government of Colombia cooperated with Brazil to address potentially problematic areas along their shared borders, while Brazil continued efforts to implement its Integrated Border Monitoring System to monitor its entire border.
Cuba also harbors several U. Virgin Islands in and hijacking a plane to flee to Cuba in ; Charles Lee Hill, who has been charged with killing New Mexico State Policeman Robert Rosenbloom in ; and Ambrose Henry Montfort, who used a bomb threat to hijack a passenger aircraft and fly to Cuba in Cuba is also believed to host or have hosted U.
The Cuban government provides housing, food ration books, and medical care for all of the fugitives residing there. The regime allows and tolerates the use of its territory by terrorist organizations. Much of Venezuela is ungoverned, under-governed, or ill-governed. At times, the regime has openly welcomed terrorist activities in its territory. Venezuela is also a permissive environment for the ELN and Hizballah sympathizers.
In , the Department of State designated one new FTO and amended two existing FTO designations by adding aliases changing the primary name of one of the groups in the process.
The Department of the Treasury also designated entities and individuals under E. For a list of all U. On September 9, the President amended Executive Order to enable the Departments of State and the Treasury to more effectively sanction the leaders of terrorist organizations and those who train to commit acts of terrorism. With this amendment, designations under Executive Order now also carry secondary sanctions implications.
The Department of the Treasury can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or payable-through account of any foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts or facilitates a significant transaction on behalf of any person designated pursuant to Executive Order In , the United States continued to work through multilateral organizations to promote U.
Examples of U. The GCTF serves as a mechanism to further the implementation of the universally agreed-upon UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and, more broadly, to complement and reinforce existing multilateral counterterrorism efforts, starting with those of the UN. The following three institutions were developed to operationalize GCTF good practices and to serve as mechanisms for strengthening civilian criminal justice responses to terrorism:.
In the coming year, U. These profiles are effective in supporting law enforcement and border control authorities to identify and interdict suspected terrorists, ensuring that the right piece of data reaches the right officer on the frontlines.
European Union EU. The U. In May, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex announced its first joint operation outside of the EU, deploying 50 officers to Albania in support of border security and managing migratory flows from Greece. The European Commission also signed two non-binding counterterrorism arrangements with Albania and North Macedonia in October. Europol has officers and personnel in Italy and Greece who work alongside border security and immigration officers to assist in screening incoming migrants against Europol databases.
In cooperation with the FBI and EU member state law enforcement, Europol also established a task force in aimed at facilitating joint investigations and information sharing on FTF cases. In an effort to strengthen judicial cooperation and cross-border investigations targeting suspected terrorists among EU member state prosecutors, Eurojust established a European Judicial Counter Terrorism Register on September 1.
The European Commission continued work on its Action Plan to Support the Protection of Public Spaces, which aims to enhance the capacity of member states to protect and reduce the vulnerability of soft targets, such as malls, restaurants, hotels, and other public spaces, against terrorist attacks.
The EU also continued six military and law enforcement capacity building missions in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, working closely with U. Incidents of hijacking have been around almost as long as human flight itself with suspected hijacks dating as far back as , and the first recorded hijacking in But they were still relatively rare until the s.
In this chart we see the annual number of hijacking incidents and fatalities globally from onwards. This data is sourced from the Aviation Safety Network , which provides up-to-date and complete information on airliner accidents across the world.
Here we see very few incidents in the s, with a small rise through the s and s. Until , there were never more than 10 incidents in a year. But from to , there was a sharp rise in hijackings — particularly in the United States. Over this 5-year period there were hijackings globally. Most ended in no fatalities: 46 were killed, 25 of which happened in This is a measure we take for granted today.
Over the period from until , hijacking incidents across the world were fairly consistent, in the range of around 20 to 40 per year. In most years there were very few fatalities, although these were interspersed with fatal events which would kill tens of passengers. Four airliners were hijacked, two of which were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Regulation was quickly tightened.
Cockpit doors on many aircraft are now bulletproof and reinforced; security checks are now standard in most countries, including domestic flights at the time, many countries had no or random checks for domestic travel ; and levels of airport screening have been tightened significantly. Many people are worried about flying because of the perceived risk of terrorism.
Some may avoid flying completely. Aviation, especially commercial air travel, is very safe. If we put it in perspective of the number of the number of people flying, in there were only 0.
This has improved significantly since the s when there was around 5 deaths per million passengers. Hijacking deaths are then only a very small fraction of the total from aviation.
In this chart we see the annual deaths from commercial airliners, and the number specifically from hijackings. This again highlights that hijacking fatalities are rare: with increased safety measures post there have been almost none. Spreading widespread fear is a key aim of terrorism.
How effective have terrorists been in this regard? How many of us are actually worried about terrorism? Many of the most comprehensive surveys on public opinion on terrorism have been conducted in the United States. This visualization shows public concern for terrorism in the US since Throughout this period — with the exception of — less than 0.
The average over the period from to was 0. We also see that concerns were spiking after large terrorist attacks in the US or European countries. When we see a recent attack in the news, we become more worried it will also happen to us or family members. We should treat these results with some caution. Is this asking about how likely we think this scenario is?
The level of risk? People may interpret it differently. Because of this we should study how people change their behaviors based on this fear. Here we find more evidence that many people in the US are worried about terrorism. There are certain locations and activities that are often the target of terrorist attacks: busy public spaces or countries around the world where attacks are more frequent.
The chart shows the share of respondents who said they were less willing to do such activities. A range of studies have looked at the impact of major terrorist incidents on airline demand, travel and tourism.
Although passenger demand later increased again, analyses suggest that domestic air travel did not return to the levels which would have been projected in the absence of the attacks. In a separate post we looked at levels of concern about terrorism in the US.
What about the rest of the world? Is it just as worried about terrorism? The WVS is a global research project running for decades, which assesses public opinion on a wide range of values and beliefs. For a range of questions it provides comparable data from across the world. A terrorist attack. But the data is complete enough to provide perspectives across the world regions. But, compared to other countries this was relatively low. What becomes clear here is that there is not a clear relationship between concern about and prevalence of terrorism.
We see this in the scatter chart which plots the share who are worried about terrorism in a given country, against its share of deaths which result from terrorism. In most countries the probability of being in a terrorist attack is very low: terrorism accounts for less than 0. Terrorism receives media attention which is disproportionate to its frequency and share of deaths. This is also the intention of terrorists. But they are very successful hijacking global news cycles. But media coverage of terrorism is also highly unequal: some events receive a lot of attention while most receive very little.
Which are the characteristics that influence whether an attack is covered in the media or not? A previous study which looked at terrorist attacks in the US from to found they received more attention if there were fatalities; airlines were a target; it was a hijacking; or organized by a domestic group.
In a recent study, researchers looked at the differences in media coverage of terrorist events in the US from to They assessed how these factors affected the amount of coverage attacks received in the US media. In this study the authors define five major news sources as CNN.
It appeared to play less of a role for local outlets. From this analysis we also see that media coverage was higher when the perpetrator was arrested partly because an arrest is a reportable event in itself ; the target of the attack was law enforcement or government; and when people were killed in the attack. Which events do and do not receive media coverage matter: evidence shows that media plays a defining role in shifting public opinion; perceptions of the importance of particular issues; and national policy conversations.
In particular, increased coverage when a perpetrator is Muslim presents an unbalanced overview of US terrorism to the public. In the dataset that this study relied on, Muslims perpetrated Combined with the fact that terrorism in general gets a disproportionate amount of media attention, the fact that the worst attacks — those that cause the greatest number of deaths — get most attention further exacerbates public fear.
One of the primary motivations for our work at Our World in Data is to provide a fact-based overview of the world we live in — a perspective that includes the persistent and long-term changes that run as a backdrop to our daily lives. We aim to provide the complement to the fast-paced reporting we see in the news. The media provides a near-instantaneous snapshot of single events; events that are, in most cases, negative.
The persistent, large-scale trends of progress never make the headlines. But is there evidence that such a disconnect exists between what we see in the news and what is reality for most of us? One study attempted to look at this from the perspective of what we die from: is what we actually die from reflected in the media coverage these topics receive?
For each source the authors calculated the relative share of deaths, share of Google searches, and share of media coverage. They restricted the considered causes to the top 10 causes of death in the US and additionally included terrorism, homicide, and drug overdoses.
This allows for us to compare the relative representation across different sources. The coverage in both newspapers here is strikingly similar. And the discrepancy between what we actually die from and what we get informed of in the media is what stands out:.
One way to think about it is that media outlets may produce content that they think readers are most interested in, but this is not necessarily reflected in our preferences when we look for information ourselves.
As we can see clearly from the chart above, there is a disconnect between what we die from, and how much coverage these causes get in the media. Another way to summarize this discrepancy is to calculate how over- or underrepresented each cause is in the media. To do this, we simply calculate the ratio between the share of deaths and share of media coverage for each cause.
In this chart, we see how over- or underrepresented each cause is in newspaper coverage. Numbers denote the factor by which they are misrepresented. Homicides are also very overrepresented in the news, by a factor of The most underrepresented in the media are kidney disease fold , heart disease fold , and, perhaps surprisingly, drug overdoses 7-fold.
Stroke and diabetes are the two causes most accurately represented. But there is another important question: should these be representative? The first is that we would expect there to be some preventative aspect to information we access.
There are several examples where I can imagine this to be true. People who are concerned about cancer may search online for guidance on symptoms and be convinced to see their doctor. Overall, 98 countries suffered less from terrorism last year, while 40 saw things get worse. Despite that improving picture, terrorism continues to pose a threat in the majority of countries. Last year, countries recorded at least one terrorist incident and 71 suffered at least one fatality as a consequence.
According to Killelea, appears to be witnessing a further improvement. If that prediction is borne out it would mark a fifth consecutive year of improvement. However, in some areas the situation is getting worse. While the suppression of Islamic State and other similar groups has contributed to a fall in the level of Islamist terrorism in the West, the danger from far-right terrorism is increasing in Europe and North America. The U. Above it, the ten countries that suffered the most from terrorism in are, in reverse order:.
A year ago, the DR Congo was ranked 11 th in the world in terms of the impact of terrorism, but this year it is included among the 10 worst countries Egypt has dropped out of the list of ten , as a result of the activities of groups such as the Allied Democratic Forces ADF , the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda FDLR and Mayi Mayi militias.
Last year there were terrorist incidents in the central African country, leading to deaths and injuries. The assaults have tended to be concentrated in the east of the country, near the borders with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Other active groups include the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, a separatist group in the south of the country, as well as militants affiliated to the Islamic State which carried out their first suicide bombing in the country last year, killing 12 people. Since , some 3, people have lost their lives in terrorism attacks in the Philippines. Yemen has been ravaged by war and instability for many years, but the death toll from terrorism has sharply declined since peaking in Last year there were deaths and injuries from terrorist incidents.
In , in contrast, there were 1, terrorist-related deaths.
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