The countries most impacted by terrorism have been revealed in a new report by the Institute for Economics and Peace that details the global terrorism index by country, with Greece sitting in the top 50 following Nepal and Uganda.

Greece ranks globally at 46, has a Global Terrorism Index (GTI) score of 4.139 and has recorded a 0.705 increase since 2002.

Lead researcher of the report Murray Ackman said there are lots of factors that influence where a country sits on the rankings of the GTI.

“If you look at the top 10, there’s a strong association between the issue of war or the collapse of the state,” he told Neos Kosmos.

“In those situations you are more likely to see terrorism because there are fewer mechanisms in place to control it.”

Whether or not the countries in the middle, like Greece, should be concerned – he says probably not.

“Greece is not in a state of war, the state has not collapsed and it also doesn’t have high levels of political terror,” Mr Ackman said.

However its ranking means Greece had a higher rate of deaths from terrorism than Australia, which is ranked 65.

“Once you get out of that top 10, the number of deaths dramatically decreases. So it’s not a huge concern for Greece,” he said.

2016 was the deadliest year for Europe, and the increase in fatalities caused the GTI score to “substantially deteriorate”.

Over 15 years up to 2016, Europe had the fourth largest deterioration in terms of the average GTI score; Turkey, for instance, ranks ninth worldwide.

Although the report considers data just from 2016 as more recent data is in its preliminary stages, Mr Ackman said overall there is a positive trend as terrorist-caused deaths are decreasing and the majority of the deadlier groups are less active.

Globally terrorism deaths have gone down with fewer deaths recorded for the three of the four deadliest terrorist groups: Al-Qaida, the Taliban. and Boko Haram. The only group that has increased its activity is ISIS.

OECD countries have seen changes in terrorist tactics used but a greater number of attacks were foiled by security services with half of the attacks using bombs and explosives thwarted.

“One of the comforts that citizens in Australia and Europe can take is that counter-terrorism efforts have improved substantially,” Mr Ackman said.

The report found that two years ago only a third of these types of attacks were foiled by security services. These more sophisticated types of attacks involve more people and planning, and therefore are more likely to be detected.