Overview: Security Stats
Organized violence is an umbrella term used to refer to:
- State-based armed conflict - fighting between two armed groups, at least one of which is a government;
- Non-state armed conflict - fighting between two armed groups, neither of which is a government; and
- One-sided violence - lethal attacks on civilians by governments or formally organized groups.
The Security Stats section presents annual data on the number of conflicts, and campaigns of one-sided violence, as well as the related death tolls.
Additional conflict-related statistics can be found in the various Human Security Report Project (HSRP) publications.
 | Organized Violence Data on the number of state-based armed conflicts have been collected for some time. However, it was not until the HSRP commissioned the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) to collect information on non-state armed conflicts, and campaigns of one-sided violence, that these data became available. More |
 | Deaths from Organized Violence Estimating the number of deaths from state-based armed conflict, non-state armed conflict, and one-sided violence is a challenging and sometimes controversial exercise. The data presented here are ‘best estimates’ and provide a benchmark. It is very possible that there are more deaths than these statistics indicate, but it is unlikely that there are fewer. More |
 | Conflict Onsets and Terminations The difference between the number of conflict onsets and terminations each year determines whether the overall number of state-based armed conflicts goes up or down. The terminations dataset also provides information on the incidence of reoccurrence of fighting. More |
 | Definitions Precise definitions - of battle deaths; state-based versus non-state armed conflict; intrastate conflict versus internationalized intrastate conflict, etc., - are essential for statistical research on the patterns and causes of organized violence. More |