Terrorists killed fewer people this year following military action

The number of deaths caused by terrorism has dropped for the first time since 2010, despite the spread of atrocities across the world.

The 10 percent decline has been put down to military action weakening the Islamic State group and Boko Haram in Iraq and Nigeria respectively, according to the Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

However a spread of attacks committed in the militant groups' names have resulted in a record number of countries experiencing their highest levels of terrorism for 16 years.

"While on the one hand the top-line statistics highlight an improvement in the levels of global terrorism, the continued intensification of terrorism in some countries is a cause for serious concern, and highlights the fluid nature of modern terrorist activity," said the report.

Attacks such as the Tunisia beach massacre in June 2015 and the Bastille Day truck rampage in France this year brought the global total to 29,376 deaths in 2015 - making it the second deadliest year on record. The worst year was 2014, when there were more than 32,765 deaths.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria accounted for 72 percent of all deaths from terrorism in 2015.

IS, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qaeda were responsible for 74 percent of these deaths. IS surpassed Boko Haram as the deadliest terrorist group in 2015. Its militants undertook attacks in 252 different cities in 2015 and was responsible for 6,141 deaths in the year.

Iraq and Nigeria had the biggest decreases in 2015 with 5,556 fewer deaths - a 32 percent drop from 2014.

However, Iraq has ranked as the country most impacted by terrorism every year since 2004. It is also suffering the highest economic impact from terrorism, reaching 17 percent of its GDP in 2015.

The index analysed the impact of terrorism in 163 countries, covering more than 99 percent of the world's population.