You could be forgiven for thinking that Europe has become too dangerous to visit after terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and France in the last three months.
However, despite the recent spate of attacks, analysis of recent figures shows that Europe is still considerably less deadly than it was during the height of the terrorism risk in the 1970s and 1980s.
Analysis conducted by the University of Maryland shows that deaths caused directly by terrorism in both the UK and Western Europe are significantly lower nowadays than in previous decades.
Europe was a far more dangerous place in the 1970s and 1980s during ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and Basque separatist group ETA undertaking enormous terrorist efforts throughout Spain.
“During the 30 years of the Troubles, the annual risk for civilians of being killed in Northern Ireland was about one in 25,000,” said The Economist in an editorial in March.
“Even in 2001, the year of America’s worst terrorist attack, the likelihood of an American in the United States being killed in a terrorist attack was less than one in 100,000.
“In the decade up to 2013, that fell to one in 56 million. Defeating terrorism depends above all on good intelligence, maintaining perspective and refusing to allow attacks to undermine the principles that make an open society.”
During the 1970s and 1980s there were many more attacks with fewer casualties per event, whereas in more recent times terror attacks are deadlier but less frequent.
In 1972, there were 400 victims of terror in Europe. As a comparison 2015 and 2016 had around a quarter of the number of fatalities, years that included the Paris Bataclan Theatre attack, Nice and Berlin truck rampages and the Brussels Airport bombing.
The situation in Australia is also no cause for alarm. Even taking into account the Lindt Café siege and the recent attack in Brighton in Victoria, deadly terror attacks on Australian soil are rare.
What do you think? Are you rethinking travelling to the UK and Europe after the recent terrorist attacks? Are you worried about terrorism attacks in Australia?
Read more at news.com.au
Related articles:
Woman among three Aussie terror attack victims in London
Should I rethink my UK trip?
The safest countries in the world
