Total Terrorist Attacks By Region, 1995-2000

From 1995 to 2000, Latin America experienced the most international terrorist attacks with 729. That's an average of 122 attacks per year. The year 2000 saw the most attacks in Latin America, when 193 were recorded.

Western Europe is second with 608 attacks, an average of 101 per year. The overall number of terrorist attacks there, however, has been decreasing from a high of 272 in 1995 to a low of 30 in 2000.

Asia has been seeing a rise in terrorist attacks, from 16 in 1995 to a high of 98 in 2000, for a total of 267 for the 6-year period.

North America has had the lowest concentration of international terrorist attacks. Only 15 were recorded from 1995 to 2000.

Total Terrorist Deaths from Attacks by Region, 1995-2000

Asia suffered the most deaths as a result of terrorist attacks; a total of 9,713 perished there from 1995 to 2000. Africa follows with 5,762 deaths for the 6-year period. The Middle East comes next with 2,190, and Western Europe with1,212. North America had the least number of dead, with only seven during that period.

Asia has the highest number of deaths in a single year for any region, with 5,639 dead in 1995. This is followed by Africa with 5,379 deaths in 1998.

 

In 2000, 86 percent of anti-U.S. attacks occurred in Latin America. The rest of the anti-U.S. attacks came in Asia (4.5 percent), Western Europe (3.5 percent), Africa (3 percent), Eurasia (2 percent) and the Middle East (1 percent). This includes attacks against U.S. facilities and attacks in which American citizens suffered casualties.

A majority of the attacks were in the form of bombings (90 percent). Other methods used were: kidnapping (6 percent), armed attack (2 percent), arson (1 percent), firebombing (1 percent), and other methods (2 percent).

Businesses were the common target for nearly 87 percent of these attacks. Only about 3 percent of the attacks were directed at military establishments and facilities. Diplomatic establishments were next (1.5 percent) followed by government facilities that were neither military nor diplomatic. (less than 1 percent).

Domestic Air Traffic in 2000

U.S.-based airplanes-from commuter planes to jumbo jets-took off more than 8.8 million times last year, or 24,100 flights per day.

More than 80 air carriers, including freight, commuter, charter and major commercial transporters, departed from 565 regional and major American airports every day.

Major domestic passenger airline statistics:

American:       743,000+ departures

Continental:    397,000+ departures

Delta:              900,000+ departures

Northwest:      563,000+ departures

TWA:              274,000+ departures

United:            750,000+ departures

U.S. Airways   736,000+ departures

Airplane Accidents in the United States

There were 47 accidents involving airplanes last year, or less than one per week.

Only 21 of them were considered "serious" accidents, producing some kind of injury.

Only three led to a loss of life.

Most of the "serious" accidents occurred when individuals (usually flight attendants) were hurt due to moderate or severe air turbulence.

Arrests at U.S. Airports From Airline Passenger Screening, 1980-1998

		Persons Arrested
Year	Passengers Screened (Millions)	Carrying firearms/explosives	Giving False Info
1980	585	1,031	32
1981	599	1,187	49
1982	630	1,314	27
1983	709	1,282	34
1984	776	1,285	27
1985	993	1,310	42
1986	1,055	1,415	89
1987	1,096	1,581	81
1988	1,055	1,493	222
1989	1,113	1,436	83
1990	1,145	1,336	18
1991	1,015	893	28
1992	1,111	1,282	13
1993	1,150	1,354	31
1994	1,261	1,433	35
1995	1,263	1,194	68
1996	1,497	999	131
1997	1,660	924	72
1998	1,903	660	86

Use of Airplanes for Long Trips (100+ miles), 1995 (most recent date available)

There were 1 billion person-trips* over 100 miles taken in 1995

Almost 16 percent of those were on airplanes.

Of those airplane flights, about 43 percent were for business purposes.

Those who are 65+ years old took only 8.3 percent of all airplane flights.

The majority of air passengers (65 percent) have household incomes greater than $50,000.

* A person-trip is one person travelling to a destination. For example, if a family of three flies from Albuquerque to San Jose, that is considered three person-trips.

American Revolution (April 19, 1775-Oct. 18, 1781): 4,435

War of 1812 (June 18, 1812 - February 17, 1815): 2,260

Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862): 5,425

Pearl Harbor (Dec. 6, 1941): 2,388

D-Day (June 6, 1944): 4,900             

Iwo Jima (Feb. 19-March 25, 1945): 6,503

Inchon Landing (Sept. 15-22, 1950): 670

Tet Offensive (Jan. 27-June 1, 1968): 7,040

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The Center for Data Analysisis the statistical department of The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org), a Washington-based public policy institute.