Tracking Terrorism Down to a T by Taylor's University

Terrorism is defined 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."
This dashboard visualisation encompasses a worldwide geographical area with 12 regions over the time period 1970-2017, excluding 1993, with the unit of analysis as count of attacks which exceeded 182k cases, 475k deaths, and 540k wounded. Over 100 variables on location, tactics, perpetrators, targets, and outcomes are considered. The map extensively highlights precise attack locations in terms of city, country, and region by day, month, and year, with the count and type of attack. Terrorist attacks over the years were then depicted in a time series which peaked in 2015, and categorised by extended attacks, specific attacks, multiple attacks, successful attacks, suicide attacks, gun attacks, and individual attacks. Notably, most attacks are extended, less specific, multiple, suicide, gun, and individual. The ranking of regional attacks, weapon choice, and attack type are then listed, with South Asia and Middle East and North Africa, explosives, and bombing/explosion in the lead respectively.
Sources: Unclassified media articles (Note: Please interpret changes over time with caution. Global patterns are driven by diverse trends in particular regions, and data collection is influenced by fluctuations in access to media coverage over both time and place.)
See the GTD Codebook for important details on data collection methodology, definitions, and coding schema.

Acknowledgements
The Global Terrorism Database is funded through START, by the US Department of State (Contract Number: SAQMMA12M1292) and the US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s Office of University Programs (Award Number 2012-ST-061-CS0001, CSTAB 3.1). The coding decisions and classifications contained in the database are determined independently by START researchers and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official views or policies of the United States Government.

Publications
The GTD has been leveraged extensively in scholarly publications, reports, and media articles. Putting Terrorism in Context: Lessons from the Global Terrorism Database, by GTD principal investigators LaFree, Dugan, and Miller investigates patterns of terrorism and provides perspective on the challenges of data collection and analysis. The GTD's data collection manager, Michael Jensen, discusses important Benefits and Drawbacks of Methodological Advancements in Data Collection and Coding.

Data source :
The Global Terrorism Database™ (GTD), an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2020 (with annual updates planned for the future). Unlike many other event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time period and now includes more than 200k cases. The database is maintained by researchers at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), headquartered at the University of Maryland.
https://start.umd.edu/gtd/
Copyright © 2009-2022 University of Maryland
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
An Emeritus Center of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA 301.405.6600