The Impact of Terrorism Around the World

According to the Global Guardian Terror Index 2026, countries in Africa, Asia and some in Latin America and the Middle East are being heavily affected by acts of terrorism. But in major economies in Europe, the terror threat also continued to be high.

Within Africa and Asia, unstable countries like Sudan, Mali, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were classified as extremely impacted by terror, as were the usual suspects like Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the extreme classification was also applied to Nigeria, India, Myanmar, Colombia and Mexico, were armed groups and insurgents continue to carry out violent attacks.

In Europe, Germany, France, Austria and the United Kingdom were classified as subject to a high impact, similar to the situation in the United States, Russia, Australia and much of the Middle East and North Africa. In the U.S. and Western Europe, lone-wolf attacks made up much of the tally, driven by islamist or other extremist ideologies.

The 2026 index now marks Iraq and Libya only in the "high" category, indicative of a broader trend which saw the epicenter of terrorism shift from the Middle East into Sub-Saharan Africa, with Burkina Faso and Niger also high on the list.

Areas of relative calm were sparse, according to the ranking, but could still be found in Southern-Central Africa, Central American and parts of Central Asia.

The ranking takes into account terror incidents, casualtites, fatalities and hostages by groups, insurgents and individual perpetrators.