Project 01 · The Cost of War · 2015–2025

The world is at
war. Quietly.

A measurable escalation, visible in the data, in the lives lost, and in the silence around them.

In 2024, armed conflict killed 250,296 people worldwide — four times the death toll of 2015. The following year did not return the curve to its pre-2022 baseline.

1.9M+
Cumulative deaths · 2015–2025
Increase · 2024 vs 2015
28,351
Deadliest single month · Nov 2024
Monthly conflict fatalities · 2015–2025
Total fatalities
Violence against civilians
Monthly conflict fatalities, January 2015 to December 2025 Bar chart showing 132 months of global conflict deaths from ACLED. Monthly totals rise from around 5,000 in early 2015 to a peak of 28,351 in November 2024. A red overlay layer shows deaths from events ACLED classifies as violence against civilians.
01 — The Decade

The Silence
of the Safe

Ten years of war, hidden in plain sight.

Across the full 2015–2025 window, around 14,000 people were killed every month on average. Before the latest escalation, the decade often moved closer to 12,000 a month. A background hum, until the hum became a roar.

~14K
Avg deaths / month
2015–2025
62.5K
Total deaths
2015 full year
02 — The Ruptures

When the Shock
Became Routine

Three wounds that never healed.

Oct 2016 · Mosul. The first time the old limits of violence visibly broke.

Feb 2022 · Ukraine. A full-scale invasion turned the "unthinkable" into a daily notification.

Oct 2023 · Gaza. More than 25,000 people killed in 30 days — a spike of grief so sharp it should have stopped the world.

25.2K
Oct 2023 · Gaza
30 days
+43%
Jump Sep → Oct 2023
03 — The Human Cost

Beyond
the Uniforms

A life is a life, whether it ends in a trench or a kitchen.

Every number in this dataset was a person — someone's son, someone's mother. There is a specific, darker layer to this decade: violence directed at those who cannot fight back.

In 2024, 43,751 civilians were not just caught in crossfire; they were the target. Markets, hospitals and schools became part of the geography of civilian harm. Sexual violence and abduction appear in the data as instruments of intimidation, control and harm against civilian communities.

43.7K
Civilian deaths in 2024
targeted in recorded events
1 in 6
Of all conflict deaths
was a targeted civilian
04 — The Aftermath

The Invisibility
of Suffering

The line is still rising. The attention is not.

By the end of 2025, Sudan had become one of the decade's deadliest conflicts, with limited global attention. Its death toll sits among the highest of the decade, yet its visibility remains strikingly low.

The geography of suffering is unequal — and so is the geography of who gets seen.

58.7K
Sudanese killed
since Apr 2023
4th
Deadliest country worldwide
2022–2024
11wars

Active wars in 2024 — conflicts with over 1,000 battle deaths per year. Highest count since the Cold War.

50%

Half of all conflict deaths from 2022 to 2025 occurred in four countries: Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine and Sudan.

37K+

Documented events of violence targeting civilians in 2024 — attacks, abductions, sexual violence. Each one logged individually.

Coming next · Section 02

Who is dying,
and where?

If half of all recorded deaths fall inside just four countries, what does the map look like once we adjust for population — and whose lives, by that measure, are made least visible?