Worst terrorist attacks in terms of fatalities in the United Kingdom 1970-2022

Since 1970 the worst terrorist attack in the United Kingdom was the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988 above Lockerbie, Scotland, which caused 270 fatalities. Of the ten attacks worst terrorist attacks in the UK, seven were related to the troubles in Northern Ireland while two were linked to Islamic extremism, including the Manchester Arena bombing of 2017.

Are terrorist attacks in the UK on the rise?

Between 2000 and 2019 the three years with the highest number of terrorist attacks in the UK all occurred relatively recently, in 2014, 2015, and 2017. Although 2019 saw a drop in the number of attacks compared with these years, the 64 attacks recorded in this year is still far higher than the relatively low number of attacks that happened between 2002 and 2013.

A global threat

In 2019, almost 25 thousand people lost their lives due to terrorism, with Afghanistan suffering the highest number of attacks at 1.75 thousand. The UK was not alone in seeing the intensity of terror attacks increase from 2014 onwards either, with the four worst years since 2006 being 2014, 2015 and 2018.