Breaking down conflict deaths by region and conflict type demonstrates which parts of the world are most affected and which forms of organized violence claim the most lives.
The chart shows the total number of conflict deaths for each region and conflict type.
More than half of conflict deaths since 1989 have occurred in Africa
The first bar shows that globally, an estimated 3.3 million people — combatants and civilians — died due to fighting in armed conflicts between 1989 (the first year for which data is available) and 2022.
This number comes from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), which uses news reports, other contemporary sources, and academic research to count the deaths in armed conflicts worldwide.1
The data does not include deaths due to disease and starvation resulting from conflicts, which can make the death toll much larger.
The chart’s second bar shows that more than half of these deaths occurred in Africa, where 1.7 million people were killed.
The Middle East and Asia were the next most affected regions, with approximately 650,000 and 570,000 deaths.
Europe and the Americas saw the fewest deaths, with around 210,000 and 170,000 deaths, respectively.2
You can explore the data by year in this chart.
When we consider that some regions have larger populations than others, we see that Africa and the Middle East have had the highest death rates: theirs are ten times higher than rates in other world regions.
A closer look at the countries with the highest number of deaths shows that almost 800,000 of the deaths occurred in Rwanda alone, followed by more than 400,000 in Syria and more than 320,000 in Afghanistan.3
Most deaths come from intrastate conflicts and one-sided violence
The chart’s third bar shows that some forms of conflict are responsible for many more deaths than others:
Intrastate conflicts — those between a state and a non-state armed group — resulted in 1.7 million deaths. That’s half of all conflict deaths since 1989.
One-sided violence — a state or non-state armed group targeting civilians — caused about one-third of conflict deaths, around 1.1 million deaths.
Non-state conflicts — those between non-state armed groups — accounted for 320,000 deaths, or 1 in 10 deaths.
And interstate conflicts — those between states — caused the fewest deaths, with 220,000 deaths, or 1 in 15 deaths.
You can explore changes over time in this chart.
Importantly, not all forms of conflict are equally common: non-state conflicts caused relatively few deaths even though they recently were the most common form of conflict, whereas interstate conflicts are rare but highly deadly.
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