Copyright University of Maryland 2018. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), University of Maryland. (2018). The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd
Information on more than 180,000 Terrorist Attacks
The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source database including information on terrorist attacks around the world from 1970 through 2017. 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 180,000 attacks. 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.
- Geography: Worldwide
- Time period: 1970-2017, except 1993
- Unit of analysis: Attack
- Variables: >100 variables on location, tactics, perpetrators, targets, and outcomes
See the GTD Codebook for important details on data collection methodology, definitions, and coding schema.
- Link to analysis
- Rejected the null hypothesis
- Tests conducted: ANOVA, Student's t-test (two-tailed)
- Level of significance (α) = 0.05
- ANOVA: Fcritical = 3.957, Fobtained = 11.75, P = 0.0009
- t-test (two-tailed): Degrees of Freedom = 82, |tobtained| = 16.749, P ≈ 0
Please note that all the descriptions are copied from the GTD Codebook.
A unique id where first 8 numbers are date recorded “yyyymmdd” and next 4 numbers are sequential case number for the given day.
The year in which the incident occurred.
The number of the month in which the incident occurred.
The numeric day of the month on which the incident occurred.
Whenever the exact date of the incident is not known or remains unclear, this field is used to record the approximate date of the incident.
Wheter the duration of an incident extended more than 24 hours or not. If yes then 1, else 0.
Date of Extended Incident Resolution. This field only applies if “Extended Incident?” is “Yes” and records the date in which the incident was resolved(hostages released by perpetrators; hostages killed; successful rescue, etc.). Eg. '12/24/1982'
Country Code
Country Name
Region Code
Region Name
This variable records the name (at the time of event) of the 1st order subnational administrative region in which the event occurs.
This field contains the name of the city, village, or town in which the incident occurred.
Latitude of the place of incident
Longitude of the place of incident
This field identifies the geospatial resolution of the latitude and longitude fields.
States whether the incident occurred in the immediate vicinity of the city in question (1) or inside the city itself (0).
This field is used to specify additional information about the location of the incident.
A brief narrative summary of the incident, noting the "when, where, who, what, how, and why."
The violent act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. This criterion is not satisfied in those cases where the perpetrator(s) acted out of a pure profit motive or from an idiosyncratic personal motive unconnected with broader societal change.
To satisfy this criterion there must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims.
The action is outside the context of legitimate warfare activities, insofar as it targets non-combatants.
In certain cases there may be some uncertainty whether an incident meets all of the criteria for inclusion. In these ambiguous cases, where there is a strong possibility, but not certainty, that an incident represents an act of terrorism, the incident is included in GTD and is coded as “Yes” for this variable.
This variable applies to only those cases coded as “Yes” for “Doubt Terrorism Proper?” (above). This variable identifies the most likely categorization of the incident other than terrorism.
Description of above feature
In those cases where several attacks are connected, but where the various actions do not constitute a single incident, then "Yes" is selected to denote that the particular attack was part of a "multiple" incident.
Success of a terrorist strike is defined according to the tangible effects of the attack. Success is not judged in terms of the larger goals of the perpetrators. For example, a bomb that exploded in a building would be counted as a success even if it did not succeed in bringing the building down or inducing government repression.
This variable is coded “Yes” in those cases where there is evidence that the perpetrator did not intend to escape from the attack alive.
This field captures the general method of attack and often reflects the broad class of tactics used.
Description of above
This variable utilizes the hierarchy and attack type definitions listed above.
Description of above
This variable utilizes the hierarchy and attack type definitions listed above.
Description of above
The target/victim type field captures the general type of target/victim.
Description of above
The target subtype variable captures the more specific target category and provides the next level of designation for each target type. If a target subtype is not applicable this variable is left blank.
Description of above
This is the name of the corporate entity or government agency that was targeted.
This is the specific person, building, installation, etc., that was targeted and/or victimized and is a part of the entity named above.
This is the nationality of the target that was attacked, and is not necessarily the same as the country in which the incident occurred, although in most cases it is.
Description of above
Conventions follow “Target/Victim Subtype” field.
Description of above
Conventions follow “Target/Victim Subtype” field.
Description of above
Conventions follow “Name of Entity” field.
Conventions follow “Specific Target/Victim” field.
Conventions follow “Nationality of Target” field.
Description
Conventions follow “Target/Victim Subtype” field.
Description
Conventions follow “Target/Victim Subtype” field.
Description
Conventions follow “Name of Entity” field.
Conventions follow “Specific Target/Victim” field.
Conventions follow “Nationality of Target/Victim” field.
Description
This field contains the name of the group that carried out the attack.
This field contains any additional qualifiers or details about the name of the group that carried out the attack. This includes but is not limited to the name of the specific faction when available.
This field is used to record the name of the second perpetrator when responsibility for the attack is attributed to more than one perpetrator.
This field is used to record additional qualifiers or details about the second perpetrator group name when responsibility for the attack is attributed to more than one perpetrator.
This field is used to record the name of the third perpetrator when responsibility for the attack is attributed to more than two perpetrators.
This field is used to record additional qualifiers of details about the third perpetrator group name when responsibility for the attack is attributed to more than two perpetrators.
When reports explicitly mention a specific motive for the attack, this motive is recorded in the “Motive” field. This field may also include general information about the political, social, or economic climate at the time of the attack if considered relevant to the motivation underlying the incident.
First Perpetrator Group Suspected/Unconfirmed? This variable indicates whether or not the information reported by sources about the Perpetrator Group Name(s) is based on speculation or dubious claims of responsibility.
Second Perpetrator Group Suspected/Unconfirmed?
Third Perpetrator Group Suspected/Unconfirmed?
This variable indicates whether or not the attack was carried out by an individual or several individuals not known to be affiliated with a group or organization.
This field indicates the total number of terrorists participating in the incident.
This field records the number of perpetrators taken into custody. “-99” or “Unknown” appears when there is evidence of captured, but the number is not reported.
This field is used to indicate whether a group or person(s) claimed responsibility for the attack.
This records one of 10 modes used by claimants to claim responsibility and might be useful to verify authenticity, track trends in behavior, etc.
Description
Second Group Claim of Responsibility?
Mode for Second Group Claim of Responsibility
Description
Third Group Claim of Responsibility?
Mode for Second Group Claim of Responsibility
Description
This field is used to indicate whether more than one group claimed separate responsibility for the attack.
Up to four weapon types are recorded for each incident. This field records the general type of weapon used in the incident.
Description
This field records a more specific value for most of the Weapon Types identified immediately above.
Description
Second Weapon Type
Description
Second Weapon Sub-Type
Description
Third Weapon Type
Description
Third Weapon Sub-Type
Description
Fourth Weapon Type
Description
Fourth Weapon Sub-Type
Description
This field notes any pertinent information on the type of weapon(s) used in the incident. Such notes could include the novel use or means of concealing a weapon, specific weapon models, interesting details of the weapons’ origins, etc.
This field stores the number of total confirmed fatalities for the incident. The number includes all victims and attackers who died as a direct result of the incident.
This field records the number of U.S. citizens who died as a result of the incident, and follows the conventions of “Total Number of Fatalities” described above.
Limited to only perpetrator fatalities, this field follows the conventions of the “Total Number of Fatalities” field described above.
Total Number of Injured.
Total Number of U.S. citizens injured.
Total Number of Perpetrators Injured.
“Yes” appears if there is evidence of property damage from the incident.
Extent of Property Damage.
Description
Value of Property Damage (in USD).
If “Property Damage?” is “Yes,” then non-monetary or imprecise measures of damage may be described in this field. This field is also used to list specific details about the property that was damaged in an attack, such as the type of vehicle that was destroyed, the areas or parts of a building that were damaged, or the types of assets that were stolen.
This field records whether or not the victims were taken hostage (i.e. held against their will) or kidnapped (i.e. held against their will and taken to another location) during an incident.
Total Number of Hostages/ Kidnapping Victims.
Total Number of U.S. Hostages/ Kidnapping Victims.
Hours of Kidnapping / Hostage Incident.
Days of Kidnapping / Hostage Incident
If the “Attack Type” is “Hostage Taking (Kidnapping)” or “Hijacking” then this field will list the country that hijackers diverted a vehicle to, or the country that the kidnap victims were moved to and held.
If the “Attack Type” is “Hostage Taking (Kidnapping)” or “Hijacking” then this field lists the country in which the incident was resolved or ended.
Ransom Demanded
Amount of ransom demanded
Ransom Amount Demanded from U.S. Sources.
Total Ransom Amount Paid
Ransom Amount Paid By U.S. Sources.
This field is used to record any specific details relating to a ransom that are not captured in the other fields.
Kidnapping/Hostage Outcome
Description
Number Released/Escaped/Rescued
This field is used to capture additional relevant details about the attack.
This field cites the first source that was used to compile information on the specific incident.
Second Source Citation.
Third Source Citation
This field identifies the original data collection effort in which each event was recorded.
This variable is based on a comparison between the nationality of the perpetrator group and the location of the attack. It indicates whether a perpetrator group crossed a border to carry out an attack.
It indicates whether a perpetrator group attacked a target of a different nationality.
It indicates whether a perpetrator group attacked a target of a different nationality.
Any of the above 3
When an attack is part of a coordinated, multi-part incident the GTD IDs of the related incidents are listed here, separated by commas.