Urban Youth and Intensity of Terrorism

This article deals with the study of the relationship between ‘urban youth bulges’ – the proportion of young people living in cities (ages 15-29) in total adult population (over 15+) – and the intensity of terrorist activity. After a brief theoretical review of modern debates on correlates of terrorism, authors argue that the growth of ‘urban youth bulges’ could lead to increased intensity of terrorist attacks. The results obtained through negative binomial regression analysis support the hypothesis that urban youth bulge promotes the intensity of terrorist attacks irrespective of a country’s level of economic development. The article also discusses the role of tertiary enrollment, its connection with urban youth population dynamics and its effect on terrorism, suggesting that in the upper echelon of developing countries expansion of tertiary education could mitigate the destabilizing influence of the growing urban youth bulge.