2025 Third-Deadliest Year Since Cold War
More Deaths Only in 1994 and 2021
33 Countries Involved in Fighting
The world entered 2025 with more wars than at any time since World War II, and the toll was devastating.
According to the annual Conflict Trends report by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), last year saw 65 state-based conflicts, the highest number recorded since 1946.
It was also the third-deadliest year since the Cold War, with 245,000 battle-related deaths. Only 1994, during the Rwandan genocide, and 2021, amid Ethiopia’s Tigray war, claimed more lives.
Researcher Siri Aas Rustad described the findings as “shocking,” noting that the sheer scale of violence left little room for optimism.
The number of interstate wars doubled compared to 2024, reaching eight separate conflicts — the most in 80 years.
Among them were clashes between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
In total, 33 countries were directly involved in fighting. Israel was among those entangled in multiple conflicts simultaneously, battling in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Africa was the most affected continent, followed by Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe. Civilian casualties rose sharply, with 76,500 deaths in 2025 attributed to direct attacks on non-combatants — a fivefold increase compared to 2024.
While non-state conflicts dropped slightly from 79 in 2024 to 75 in 2025, large-scale wars in Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza drove the global death toll upward.
The report stressed that the past five years have produced more deaths than the entire two decades before 2021, underscoring a relentless cycle of overlapping wars.
Rustad concluded that the world is facing a new era of continuous, high-intensity conflict: “Several big conflicts are happening at once, and they keep replacing each other. The world doesn’t get a break.”