The terror attacks in Paris form part of a growing trend in terrorism worldwide, a study shows.
According to the latest Global Terrorism Index report, deaths from terrorism increased 80 percent in 2014, its highest level ever, with 32,658 people killed, compared to 18,111 in 2013.
It said that 78 percent of all deaths and 57 percent of all attacks occurred in five countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.
Boko Haram and the Islamic State (ISIS) were responsible for 51 percent of all claimed global fatalities in 2014.
Iraq is the country most affected by terrorism last year with 9,929 terrorist fatalities, the highest ever in a single country while Nigeria experienced the largest increase in terrorist activity with 7,512 deaths in 2014, an increase of 300 percent since 2013.
Terrorism has cost $52.9 billion in the global economy, the report said.
Since 2000, there have been over 61,000 terrorist attacks that have killed more than 140,000 people.
Thirteen times as many people are killed globally by homicides than by terrorist attacks, it added.
The report indicated that excluding the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S., only 0.5 percent of deaths from terrorism have occurred in Western countries since 2000.
"Lone wolf attackers are the main perpetrators of terrorist activity in the West. Seventy percent of all deaths from terrorism in the West since 2006 were by lone wolf terrorists with the rest being unknown or group attacks by more than three attackers," the report read.
The index said Islamic fundamentalism was not the main cause of terrorism in the West over the last nine years, as 80 percent of deaths by lone wolf terrorists in the West were driven by right-wing extremism, nationalism, anti-government sentiment and political extremism and other forms of supremacy.
Terrorism is a significant driver of refugee activity and internal displacement with 10 of 11 countries that had more than 500 deaths from terrorism in 2014 having the highest levels of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world.
The number of countries experiencing more than 500 terrorism deaths increased from five to 11 in 2013. They now include Somalia, Ukraine, Yemen, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Cameroon, according to CNN.
Ukraine was added to the list because of the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by a missile that killed 289 people.
The report said political violence and conflict are the two factors most closely linked to terrorism.
Between 1989 and 2014, 92 percent of all terrorist attacks occurred in countries where state-funded political violence was widespread.
