World Map of Peace
Current wars and conflicts worldwide
How many wars there are depends on who is counting. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program counted 13 wars for 2025, the Heidelberg Conflict Barometer 28. Where they are, how the counts are made and how the number has changed over ten years, data as of October 2026
Key points at a glance
- The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) counted 65 armed conflicts involving states worldwide in 2025, more than in any year since 1946. 13 of them reached the threshold of war.
- The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) observed 359 conflicts in 2025, including 28 wars and 25 limited wars.
- According to both counts, most wars are in Sub-Saharan Africa. HIIK counts 13 of the 28 wars there.
- At the end of 2025, according to UNHCR, 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced, 5.4 million fewer than a year earlier.
In numbers
65
armed conflicts in 2025
involving states, highest since 1946 (UCDP)
28
wars in 2025
according to the HIIK Conflict Barometer
117.8 m
forcibly displaced people
end of 2025, according to UNHCR
- 201612
- 201710
- 20186
- 20197
- 20208
- 20215
- 20228
- 20239
- 202411
- 202513
- Sub-Saharan Africa13
- Asia and Oceania7
- West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan6
- Europe1
- The Americas1
UCDP, Uppsala
- What is counted
- Armed conflicts in which at least one state is involved
- When a conflict counts
- From 25 battle-related deaths in a calendar year
- When a war counts
- From 1,000 battle-related deaths in a calendar year
- Result for 2025
- 65 conflicts, 13 of them wars
HIIK, Heidelberg
- What is counted
- Political conflicts, violent and non-violent
- When a conflict counts
- Even without violence, as a dispute
- When a war counts
- Highest of five intensity levels, assessed by means and consequences
- Result for 2025
- 359 conflicts, 28 of them wars
- Data as of
- Year 2025, page as of October 2026
- Uppsala count
- UCDP, data published in June 2026
- Heidelberg count
- HIIK, Conflict Barometer 2025 from July 2026
- Displaced people
- UNHCR Global Trends 2025, as of end of 2025
- Author
- Johannes Max Harms
Where are the current wars in the world?
According to the HIIK Conflict Barometer 2025, the current wars are spread across five world regions, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. The institute counts 13 wars there, including three in Sudan, two in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and several in the Sahel and around Lake Chad. In Asia and Oceania there are seven, five of them in Myanmar.
In the region of West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan, HIIK counts six wars, including several involving Israel and two in Syria. In Europe it is the war between Russia and Ukraine, in the Americas the conflict between gangs and the government in Haiti. The table below lists all 28 wars with the institute’s names.
UCDP counts 13 wars for 2025: seven in Africa, two each in Asia and the Middle East, one each in Europe and the Americas. Both counts refer to the year 2025, figures for 2026 are not yet available. This page reflects data as of October 2026 and does not judge any party to a war. It reports what researchers count.
How many wars are there in the world?
According to UCDP, there were 13 wars worldwide in 2025, more than in any year since 1992. In total, the programme counted 65 armed conflicts involving states, the highest figure since its data begin in 1946. Eight of them were fought between states, compared with two in 2023.
HIIK counts differently and arrives at 28 wars and 25 limited wars. In total, the institute observed 359 conflicts. 221 of them, or 62 percent, were fought violently, 138 remained non-violent.
The total number of conflicts fell slightly at HIIK, from 364 to 359. Violent conflicts, on the other hand, increased, wars from 27 to 28 and limited wars from 23 to 25. Five wars de-escalated to a lower level in 2025, while five conflicts newly reached the level of war.
Why do UCDP and HIIK count different numbers of wars?
UCDP measures by deaths. An armed conflict counts from 25 battle-related deaths in a calendar year, a war from 1,000. At least one side must be the government of a state. Fighting between armed groups without a state and violence against civilians are recorded separately.
HIIK assesses every political conflict by the means used and their consequences, meaning weapons and personnel on one side and deaths, displaced people and destruction on the other. This results in one of five levels. War is the highest level, and conflicts between non-state groups can reach it too.
That is why the figures are far apart without either being wrong. If you want to know why war exists at all, the causes are explained on a separate page. For a comparison over several years, it is best to stick to one source.
Which regions have the most war zones?
According to HIIK, Sub-Saharan Africa has the most wars, 13 of 28, and with 14 also the most limited wars. Of the region’s 86 conflicts, 66 were fought violently. At UCDP, too, seven of the 13 wars are in Africa.
HIIK counts the most conflicts overall in Asia and Oceania, namely 100, 55 of them violent and seven wars. They are followed by West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan with 64 conflicts and six wars, the Americas with 62 conflicts, one war and five limited wars, and Europe with 47 conflicts and one war.
A war often affects only part of a country, and a region with many conflicts is not fought over everywhere. How peaceful whole states are overall is shown by the ranking of the least peaceful countries according to the Global Peace Index.
How has the number of wars changed over ten years?
According to UCDP data, the number of wars fluctuated considerably over the past ten years. There were twelve in 2016 and only five in 2021, and since then the number has risen every year, to 13 in 2025. The first chart above shows the trend.
The number of armed conflicts involving states was 54 in 2016 and 65 in 2025. Conflicts between states grew particularly strongly: according to UCDP, their number doubled twice in a row from 2023 to 2025, from two to eight.
Part of the trend is that conflicts also ease or end. In 2025, HIIK downgraded five wars to a lower level, and according to the institute, the parties settled two conflicts themselves. How ceasefires and peace agreements came about is shown in the series How wars ended. This page only reports counts and does not predict how individual wars will develop.
How many people have fled war and violence?
At the end of 2025, according to the UNHCR Global Trends report, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order. That is one in 70 people in the world.
More than half of them are internally displaced people, meaning people who had to flee within their own country, around 68.7 million. In addition, there are 41.6 million refugees and almost 9 million asylum-seekers whose claims have not yet been decided.
For the first time in a decade, the number fell, by 5.4 million compared with the end of 2024. UNHCR attributes this mainly to returns to Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Syria, and points out that many people returned under difficult conditions.
UNHCR, Global Trends 2025
Global forced displacement fell during 2025, for the first time in a decade.
Sources
The 28 wars of 2025 according to HIIK
| Region | Conflict (HIIK name) | Compared with 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Sudan (opposition) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Sudan (Darfur) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Sudan (inter-communal rivalry) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | South Sudan (opposition) | new as a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | DR Congo (AFC / M23) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | DR Congo (Ituri militias) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Ethiopia (Fano militias / Amhara) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Mali, Burkina Faso et al. (JNIM et al.) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Niger, Mali et al. (IS Sahel) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Nigeria (bandits) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Nigeria, Chad et al. (ISWAP) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Nigeria, Chad et al. (JAS-Boko Haram) | still a war |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Somalia, Kenya (al-Shabaab) | still a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Cambodia and Thailand (border) | new as a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Pakistan (Islamist militant groups) | new as a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Myanmar (opposition) | still a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Myanmar (AA / Rakhine State) | still a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Myanmar (KIA, KIO / Kachin State) | still a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Myanmar (KNU, KNLA, KNDO et al. / Karen State, Kayah State) | still a war |
| Asia and Oceania | Myanmar (TNLA / Shan State) | still a war |
| West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan | Israel (Hamas et al.) | still a war |
| West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan | Israel and Lebanon | still a war |
| West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan | Israel and State of Palestine (PNA) | still a war |
| West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan | Iran and Israel | new as a war |
| West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan | Syria (opposition) | still a war |
| West Asia, North Africa and Afghanistan | Syria (Suwayda / Southern Syria) | new as a war |
| Europe | Russia and Ukraine | still a war |
| The Americas | Haiti (gangs) | still a war |
Source: HIIK, Conflict Barometer 2025, July 2026. The names follow HIIK and state the country and the groups involved. They are not a judgement. "New as a war" means that the conflict was at a lower level in 2024 or broke out in 2025.
More in this series
- The most dangerous countries in the worldGlobal Peace Index 2026Russia ranks last in the Global Peace Index 2026, followed by Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine and Israel. What the ranking says about the least safe countries in the world, and what it does not
- Global Peace IndexGlobal Peace Index 2026, methodology sectionEvery year the Global Peace Index ranks 163 states by how peaceful they are. If you want to read the ranking, it helps to know how it is calculated
More questions about wars and conflicts worldwide
Which wars are there in 2026?
There is no completed count for 2026 yet. UCDP and HIIK always evaluate a full calendar year and publish the result the following year: the figures for 2025 were released in June 2026 by UCDP and in July 2026 by HIIK.
This page therefore lists the wars that researchers recorded for 2025. Whether a conflict still counts as a war in 2026 will only be settled with the next edition. This page will be updated then as well.
When does an armed conflict count as a war?
For UCDP, an armed conflict is a dispute over government or territory in which at least one side is the government of a state and at least 25 people die in battle in a calendar year. A war is such a conflict with at least 1,000 battle-related deaths in a year.
HIIK works without a fixed number of deaths. It places every conflict on one of five levels, from dispute through non-violent crisis, violent crisis and limited war to war. What a conflict is in general and how it escalates is explained on the page What is a conflict?.
How many people died from organised violence in 2025?
UCDP counted around 244,600 deaths from organised violence in 2025. According to this count, it was the year with the second-highest number of deaths since 1994, the year of the genocide in Rwanda.
The figure covers three forms of violence: armed conflicts involving states, conflicts between non-state groups with around 14,500 deaths, and violence against civilians with around 76,500 deaths. The figure for violence against civilians is the highest since 1994.
Is there a war in Europe?
Yes. For 2025, HIIK counts one war in Europe, the one between Russia and Ukraine. In total, it observed 47 conflicts in the region, twelve of them violent.
UCDP also places this war above the threshold of 1,000 battle-related deaths. With at least 94,700 deaths, it was the conflict with the most battle-related deaths worldwide in 2025 according to UCDP, accounting for around 62 percent of all battle-related deaths that year.
Where can I find information on the security situation for a trip?
This page does not give travel advice. The counts by UCDP and HIIK describe a past year and whole conflicts, not the situation in a particular city or region today.
For every country, the German Federal Foreign Office publishes travel and safety advice and, where needed, a partial travel warning or a travel warning. This advice is updated continuously and is the reliable basis for your decision.
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