The world witnessed the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II in 2025, according to a new report by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), highlighting a sharp rise in global violence and interstate warfare.
The report, Conflict Trends: A Global Overview, 1946–2025, recorded 65 state-based conflicts across 35 countries last year, the highest number since systematic records began in 1946. The findings are based on data compiled by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), one of the world's leading conflict-monitoring databases.
PRIO said 2025 was among the deadliest years since the end of the Cold War, with approximately 245,000 battle-related deaths. The surge in fatalities was driven largely by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as escalating violence in Sudan.
A particularly worrying trend was the resurgence of direct conflicts between states. The number of interstate conflicts doubled from four in 2024 to eight in 2025, marking the highest level recorded since 1946. These included confrontations involving Russia and Ukraine, India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, and multiple conflicts linked to tensions in the Middle East.
“The return of interstate conflict at this scale is deeply worrying,” said PRIO Research Director Siri Aas Rustad, the lead author of the report. She noted that geopolitical rivalries, border disputes and regional escalations are increasingly driving direct confrontations between states.
The report also documented a dramatic increase in violence against civilians. More than 76,000 people were killed in one-sided violence in 2025, the highest level since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Much of this increase was linked to atrocities committed during the conflict in Sudan, particularly in the Darfur region.
Africa remained the region with the highest number of state-based and non-state conflicts, while the Middle East recorded its highest-ever level of state-based conflict. Asia also experienced its highest level of state-based violence since the mid-1990s.
According to PRIO, the data points to a world experiencing more wars, greater internationalisation of conflicts and rising human costs, underscoring growing challenges for diplomacy, peacebuilding and humanitarian efforts worldwide.
