The Global Terrorism Index more or less does what it says on the tin – it assesses the number of terrorist attacks worldwide and the causes of those attacks. It draws on data from the US-based global terrorism database from 2000-13.

This year’s report, by the Institute for Economics and Peace, recorded nearly 10,000 terrorist attacks and 18,000 deaths in 2013, a 60 per cent rise from the previous year. The increase was largely due to the ongoing civil war in Syria and the subsequent impact on Iraq.

The vast majority of attacks – 66 per cent – were perpetrated by just four groups: ISIS (Islamic State), Boko Haram, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda. All of these groups follow a Wahhabi ideology. More than 80 per cent of deaths from terrorism in 2013 occurred in just five countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria.

This underlines a trend that the report’s authors noted, which is that in recent years, religious extremism has become the main driver of terrorism. In years gone by, nationalist separatist terrorist groups, like the IRA or Chechen rebels, were responsible for the majority of attacks. Since 2000, the activity of these nationalist separatist groups has remained relatively stable while religious extremism – particularly in the five countries worst affected – has grown.

The report points out that religious ideology wasn’t the only motivation for terrorism, and notes that many Muslim-majority countries – the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar – don’t have a problem. It identifies three main factors that correlate with terrorism. These are hostility between different ethnic or religious groups; state-sponsored violence such as extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses; and high levels of violence in general, such as conflict or violent crime. This demonstrates that “social, political, and geopolitical” factors play a part, as well as religious ideology.

The report is available here.