The number of people killed by terrorism reached a record high in 2014, with almost four in five of these deaths occurring in just five countries, new research shows.
Terrorism killed more than 32,600 people last year, an 80 per cent increase from 2013 and the sharpest yearly rise on record, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2015.
The index is compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank based in Sydney, New York and Mexico.
Deaths from terrorism, 2000-14. Nine times more people were killed by terrorism in 2014 than in 2000. Source: Global Terrorism Index 2015
The death toll was heavily concentrated. Seventy-eight per cent of fatalities occurred in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.
Nigeria recorded the largest increase in deaths from terrorism. Fatalities quadrupled in 2014, reaching more than 7500.
But Iraq stands out as the worst-affected country, accounting for 30 per cent of all deaths from terrorism, according to the report. More than 9900 people died in 3370 attacks in Iraq last year.
"This is the highest number of terrorism incidents and fatalities ever recorded by a single country," the institute's press release reads.
The report highlights the link between US military intervention and terrorism in Iraq.
"The start of the increases in deaths from terrorism in Iraq coincided with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Deaths from terrorism spiked in 2007 with the surge in US troops in Iraq and then subsequently fell by 56 per cent," according to the report.
"It was only in 2013 with the rise of ISIL [Islamic State] that Iraq suffered from the same level of terrorism again."
The recent attacks in France have sparked fierce debate over the disproportionate attention media outlets give to terrorism attacks in Western countries.
Less than three per cent of the lives lost to terrorism since 2000 have been in the West, the report found. This figure drops to 0.5 per cent when the September 11 attacks are excluded.
More than 60 per cent of the 162 countries covered in the report did not have any deaths from terrorism in 2014.
The Global Terrorism Index, now in its third year, ranks 162 countries by how greatly terrorism affects them both directly and indirectly. It defines terrorism as "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non‐state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation".
Australia jumped 36 places in this year's Index, propelled by the Lindt cafe siege in Sydney's Martin Place, which killed three people, including the perpetrator Man Haron Monis. Australia ranked 59th in the 2015 index compared with 95th in 2014.
Islamic fundamentalism was not the main driver of terrorism in Western countries, the report said. It found "lone-wolf" attackers posed the greatest threat, causing seven out of 10 deaths over the past decade.
Eighty per cent of lone-wolf deaths were caused by "right-wing extremists, nationalists and anti-government elements, other types of political extremism and supremacism", the institute found.
Islamic State and Boko Haram were jointly responsible for half (51 per cent) of all lives lost in terrorist attacks in 2014. Together, the groups killed more than 12,700 people last year, with Boko Haram killing about 570 more than Islamic State.
Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State in March 2015.
State-sponsored violence and armed conflict within a country are the two factors most closely associated with terrorism, according to the report's statistical analysis of 25 years of terrorist activity.
The conditions that foster terrorism differ between more and less developed countries, Steve Killelea, executive chairman of the institute, said.
"In the West, socio-economic factors such as youth unemployment and drug crime correlate with terrorism. In non-OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries, terrorism shows stronger associations with ongoing conflict, corruption and violence."
Policies that reduced political violence by governments, increased respect for human rights and religious freedoms and "diffused group grievances" would help address causes of terrorism, Mr Killelea said.
The Global Terrorism Index is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database, compiled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. The data starts from 1970.
Putting the numbers in context, the index notes that homicides kill 13 times more people worldwide than terrorism.
Separately, World Health Organisation figures show 38 times more people die worldwide in road traffic accidents than from terrorism.
