PRIO report says nearly 245,000 people killed in global conflicts during 2025
A new report by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) has revealed that 2025 was the third deadliest year for global conflict since the end of the Cold War, with 65 state-based conflicts recorded worldwide — the highest number since World War II. The study warned of rising global instability, surging civilian casualties and increasingly complex wars driven by conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
There were 65 conflicts involving at least one state recorded worldwide last year, marking the highest number since 1946, according to a study published Tuesday. The annual
“Conflict Trends” report from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) also found that 2025 was the third-deadliest year for conflict since the end of the Cold War, with only 1994 and 2021 recording higher death tolls.
“Usually, I’m able to sort of squeeze something positive out of it, but this year it’s shocking, the numbers,” researcher Siri Aas Rustad told reporters.
The number of conflicts between states also reached a new 80-year peak, doubling from 2024 to eight. These included clashes between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, as well as Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The study noted that conflicts are becoming increasingly complex, with many countries involved in battles on multiple fronts and with a growing number of actors participating. Israel, for example, was simultaneously involved in several conflicts — in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“This trend points to a growing complexity in conflict dynamics, with more actors involved, which has important implications for how we analyze and respond to conflict,” the report said.
Africa remained the continent most affected by state-based conflict, followed by Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and Europe.
The PRIO research is based on figures compiled by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), linked to Uppsala University in Sweden.
The study categorizes organized violence into three groups: conflicts involving at least one state, non-state conflicts, and one-sided violence against civilians.
According to the report, there were 75 non-state conflicts in 2025, slightly down from 79 in 2024. Researchers noted a particularly significant decline in lethal violence between Mexican drug cartels during the year.
The report found that around 245,000 people were killed in battle-related deaths in 2025, making it the third-deadliest year in the post-Cold War era. The figure was driven largely by Russia’s war in Ukraine, violence in Sudan and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Nearly 76,500 of those deaths were linked to attacks directly targeting civilians, a dramatic rise from 14,200 in 2024, dw.com reports.
Only 1994 and 2021 were deadlier years. The 1994 toll was linked to the Rwandan genocide, in which around 800,000 people were killed, while the 2021 figures were tied to the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where hundreds of thousands died between 2020 and 2022.
The PRIO report said the past five years alone have recorded more conflict-related deaths than the entire two decades prior to 2021.
“What has happened in the past five or six years is that we have several big conflicts going on at the same time and they seem to take over from each other. The world doesn’t get any break,” Rustad said.
