2025 Political Violence & Civil Unrest Trends

The Allianz Commercial political violence and civil unrest trends report examines the increasing challenges businesses face from civil unrest, terrorism and state-sponsored sabotage. For the past three years, political risks and violence have ranked among the top 10 global concerns for companies of all sizes in the Allianz Risk Barometer, highlighting this growing threat to business operations.

Key insights include:

• Civil unrest is the most concerning political violence exposure for businesses, with over 800 significant anti-government protests occurring since 2017 across 150-plus countries. In the top 20 countries for protest activity in 2024 alone, more than 80,000 incidents were recorded.
• Terrorism threats are evolving through multiple forces, with attacks in the West increasing by 63% and European incidents doubling to 67. Both Islamist extremism and far-right violence are on the rise, with over 100 reported right-wing extremist incidents in 2024.
• State-sponsored sabotage is becoming a persistent threat, with documented Russian hybrid warfare activities across Europe jumping from 13 incidents in 2023 to 44 in 2024, targeting critical infrastructure, communication systems, and supply chains.
• Environmental activism is turning more hostile, with incidents increasing approximately 120% between 2022 and 2023 as climate protesters move beyond disruption to more targeted actions against companies they associate with climate issues.