Migration / foreigners
About 2,800 events per year in 2020–22, rising to 7,594 events in 2025. This theme includes different political positions and types of unrest.
ACLEDTHE GLOBAL PULSE
Is the world protesting more — and more violently?
Measure the volume, changing grievances and the difference between peaceful protest, riots and state force. Every chart names its source and time window.
>148KDemonstrations recorded in 2025ACLED · 2025
>170K2021 remains the higher benchmarkACLED · 2021
≥88Countries with more protest activity in 20252025 vs 2024
197Countries / territories covered in 2025ACLED
01 / EVENT TYPES
Peaceful vs violent: what is actually counted?
ACLED reviewed more than one million protest and riot events over roughly six years. It classified 88.7% as protests and 11.3% as riots (violent demonstrations or mob violence). This is an event-type distribution, not a crowd-by-crowd judgment or the rate of police violence.
ProtestsRiots including mob violence
A peaceful demonstration with police intervention is still coded as a protest. A violent demonstration is coded as a riot. State violence against peaceful demonstrators must not be equated with violence initiated by protesters.
ACLED · Raleigh Report, July 202602 / VOLUME
Volume rising, but not a straight record every year
ACLED reports a third consecutive annual increase by 2025, but 2021 had more than 170,000 demonstrations. The two figures also cover different numbers of countries and territories, so this is a benchmark rather than a like-for-like percent change.
2021 · >170,000217 territories
2025 · >148,000197 territories
ACLED 2025 annual review (197 countries/territories) · Six-year riot/protest study published July 2026. Figures are not one unified time series.
ACLED · What’s driving conflict today? 03 / DRIVERS
Which drivers are changing?
Counter-demonstrations
Up 33% in the first 11 months of 2025 compared with the same months in 2024. More confrontation does not mean all marches were violent.
ACLEDPro-Palestine demonstrations
About 18,000 demonstrations in 2025 alone, documented across a broader movement in 104 countries and territories since October 2023.
ACLEDWider geographic growth
At least 88 countries recorded more demonstrations in 2025 than in 2024, even though the world total remains below the 2021 high.
ACLED04 / CASE SELECTION
Causes in this atlas — not a global sample
The breakdown below is calculated only from the deliberately selected case studies on this site. It shows editorial coverage, not the global prevalence of grievances.
n = 16
Economy / taxes5/16
Civil rights / identity4/16
Policy / regulations2/16
Governance2/16
Public services2/16
Corruption1/16
So, is it escalating?
Frequency is rising again, but escalation is uneven. Global 2025 demonstration volume rose; an ACLED six-year dataset still shows far more protests than riots. France’s 2026 cycle is a striking local exception, not proof that Europe or the world has the same riot rate.
Europe focus ↗