Death Toll in 2014’s Bloodiest Wars Sharply Up on Previous Year

The body count from the top twenty deadliest wars in 2014 was more that 28% higher than in the previous year, research by the Project for the Study of the 21st Century (PS21) shows. Almost every major war in 2014 saw a significant increase in casualties.

According to analysis of a variety of data sets, 2014 saw at least fourteen conflicts that killed more than 1000 people, compared to only ten in 2013.

Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan remained the three deadliest wars, unchanged from the previous year but with all three seeing a significant spike in fatalities

Nigeria was the fourth deadliest, its number of deaths almost tripling on the previous year as the conflict with militant group, Boko Haram, intensified.

“Assessing casualty figures in conflict is notoriously difficult and many of the figures we are looking at here a probably underestimates,” said PS21 Executive Director, Peter Apps. “The important thing, however, is that when you compare like with like data for 2014 and 2013, you get a very significant increase. That says something very concerning.”

Many of the most violent conflicts involved radical Islamist groups – particularly Islamic State, the Taliban, Boko Haram and various Al Qaeda franchises.

Sudan and South Sudan remained amongst the world’s bloodiest wars. Indeed, if the two countries had remained unified, their combined death toll would have pushed them to the number three spot above Afghanistan.

Ukraine, at peace in 2013, became the eighth bloodiest war, its death toll exceeding Somalia, Libya and Israel/the Palestinian territories.

The spike in violence appears part of a broader multi-year trend. Research published last year by the Australia and US-based Institute for Economics and Peace showed a steady decline in world peace and rise in conflict related violence every year since 2007, bucking a multi-decade improvement since the end of World War II.

View the full report here. A discussion with Steve Killelea on rising global conflict trends is at the bottom of this post.

Top 20 Deadliest Countries in 2014

Compared to Top 20 Deadliest Countries in 2013

Rank	2014	Death Toll	2013	Death Toll
1	Syria	76,021	Syria	73,447
2	Iraq	21,073	Afghanistan	10,172
3	Afghanistan	14,638	Iraq	9,742
4	Nigeria	11,529	Sudan	6,816
5	South Sudan	6,389	Pakistan	5,739
6	Pakistan	5,496	Nigeria	4,727
7	Sudan	5,335	South Sudan	4,168
8	Ukraine	4,707	Somalia	3,153
9	Somalia	4,447	CAR	2,364
10	CAR	3,347	DR Congo	1,976
11	Libya	2,825	India	885
12	Israel/Palestine	2,365	Mali	870
13	Yemen	1,500	Libya	643
14	DR Congo	1,235	Yemen	600
15	India	976	North Caucuses	529
16	Philippines	386	Thailand	455
17	Mali	380	Algeria	340
18	North Caucuses	341	Philippines	322
19	Thailand	330	Colombia	124
20	Algeria	242	Myanmar	62
Total		163,562		127,134
% Change		*28.7*

Steve Killelea, Founder and Chief Executive of the Institute for Economics and Peace discusses rising death tolls in global conflict with PS21 Executive Director, Peter Apps: