Reports on International Terrorism:
Statistics on Incidents of Terrorism Worldwide

In 2012, a total of 6,771 terrorist attacks occurred worldwide, resulting in more than 11,000 deaths and more than 21,600 injuries. In addition, more than 1,280 people were kidnapped or taken hostage. In this report we describe patterns of worldwide terrorist activity with respect to changes during the year, geographic concentration, casualties, perpetrator organizations, tactics, weapons, and targets.

On average, there were 564.25 attacks, 924.83 deaths, and 1,804.33 injuries per month in 2012. There were 1.64 fatalities and 3.20 injuries per attack, including perpetrator casualties.

Although terrorist attacks occurred in 85 different countries in 2012, they were heavily concentrated geographically. Over half of all attacks (55%), fatalities (62%), and injuries (65%) occurred in just three countries: Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Nearly half of all terrorist attacks in 2012 (49.4%) caused no fatalities and 53 percent caused no injuries. The majority of the non-lethal attacks were bombings (74.2%) and approximately 20 percent of them were unsuccessful attacks.

Information about perpetrators was reported for 38 percent of terrorist attacks in 2012. More than 160 organizations were named as perpetrators of terrorist attacks. In addition to carrying out the most attacks, the Taliban in Afghanistan was responsible for the greatest number of fatalities in 2012. Along with Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI), the Taliban was among the most lethal organizations, causing an average of 3.5 deaths per attack.

Half of all targets (50.5%) were classified as either private citizens and property or police. The most lethal terrorist attacks in 2012 were those in which the primary target was a religious institution. On average, these attacks resulted in 2.56 deaths per attack.

Diplomatic targets were attacked 95 times in 2012. More than one-third of all diplomatic targets were UN personnel or facilities. The remaining diplomatic targets included the African Union, the European Union, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, as well as consulates, embassies, and diplomatic personnel representing Bulgaria, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United States.

Year	Total Attacks	People Killed	People Injured	People Kidnapped
2007	14,415	22,720	44,103	4,980
2008	11,663	15,709	33,901	4,680
2009	10,968	15,311	32,660	10,749
2010	11,641	13,193	30,684	6,051
2011	10,283	12,533	25,903	5,554
2012	6,771	11,098	21,652	1,283

Country	Total Attacks	Total Killed	Total Wounded	Avg. Killed per Attack	Avg. Wounded Per Attack
Pakistan	1404	1848	3643	1.32	2.59
Iraq	1271	2436	6641	1.92	5.23
Afghanistan	1023	2632	3715	2.57	3.63
India	557	231	559	0.41	1.00
Nigeria	546	1386	1019	2.54	1.87
Thailand	222	174	897	0.78	4.04
Yemen	203	365	427	1.80	2.10
Somalia	185	323	397	1.75	2.15
Philippines	141	109	270	0.77	1.91
Syria	133	657	1787	4.94	13.44