Youth involved in nearly half of terrorism probes in Europe and North America, study finds

Published on 01/04/2026 - 8:00 GMT+2

Despite the wide interaction of coercion successful the West being little present than a decennary ago, the engagement of minors and young adults "has go 1 of the astir pressing information concerns", according to the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Terrorism Index 2026.

The radicalisation process is present quicker than ever. Historically, what utilized to instrumentality months oregon adjacent years tin present instrumentality spot wrong weeks oregon adjacent days.

This is driven by short-form online propaganda, algorithmic amplification, and the exploitation of developmental vulnerabilities, according to the research.

"While the superior people demographic for violent networks spans youths aged 15 to 25, progressive recruitment and ideological indoctrination person been documented successful children arsenic young arsenic 8 years old," the survey noted.

Youth and minors accounted for 42% of each terror-related investigations successful Europe and North America successful 2025, a threefold summation since 2021.

In 2024, teenagers were progressive successful astir two-thirds of Islamic State-linked arrests successful Europe.

For instance, the Belgian quality work (VSSE) reported that one-third of its violent investigations betwixt 2022 and 2024 acrophobic minors.

Political polarisation, rising antisemitic violence, and the accelerated online radicalisation of young radical proceed to make an ongoing situation wherever coercion remains a superior threat.

How has coercion evolved successful Europe implicit the past 2 decades?

The Western and Central Europe portion had the second-lowest mean interaction of coercion successful 2025, registering 14 terrorism-related deaths and 51 incidents. This is simply a driblet from 2024, which had 25 deaths and 81 incidents.

Germany, France, and Greece are the EU countries astir affected by terrorism.

Germany experienced the astir deaths and injuries from coercion successful the region, with six deaths from 5 violent attacks.

The largest attack occurred successful Munich successful February 2025, erstwhile a 24-year-old antheral drove a car into a protestation rally, sidesplitting 2 and injuring astatine slightest 39 people.

Germany has recorded 221 attacks and 53 deaths from coercion since 2011.

Meanwhile, in France, determination person been 281 fatalities from violent attacks since 2007.

In 2025, the state experienced 12 violent attacks resulting successful the deaths of 4 people, with 18 much injured. It is the highest fig of attacks and injuries since 2020.

Yet, the wide interaction remains mean for Germany and debased for France and Greece, with the 3 countries ranking 29th, 35th, and 40th, respectively, retired of the full world.

In fact, Austria was the EU state wherever the interaction of coercion accrued the astir successful 2025.

On the different hand, six EU countries were ranked arsenic not affected by terrorism, with Romania, Hungary and Estonia the lowest-ranked countries successful the bloc.

Czechia recorded the largest betterment connected the Index successful the region.

The state has mostly been escaped of violent attacks implicit the past 15 years, with conscionable six incidents recorded since 2011.

No incidental successful that play different than the 2023 wide shooting resulted successful immoderate fatalities.