Researchers need a consistent definition before they can count anything, and UCDP’s is built around organized violence: the use of armed force between organized actors that results in deaths. To keep the category measurable, UCDP records a conflict only once it crosses a threshold of at least 25 recorded battle-related deaths in a single calendar year. Below that level, an incident is not counted as an active armed conflict in the dataset.
UCDP sorts organized violence into three types. State-based armed conflict has a government as one of the parties. Non-state conflict is fought between organized groups where neither side is a government. One-sided violence is the use of armed force against civilians by a government or an organized group. Separating these types lets analysts describe who is involved without making any judgment about cause or justification.
The terms “armed conflict” and “war” are not interchangeable in this data. UCDP reserves “war” for the most intense cases: a conflict that reaches at least 1,000 recorded battle-related deaths in a calendar year. Most active conflicts in any given year sit below that level. Using the threshold consistently means a “war” label reflects a measured intensity, not a rhetorical one.
These categories are analytical tools, not the full story. A single situation can involve more than one type of violence at once, intensity can change from year to year, and the labels describe recorded deaths rather than the lived experience of the people affected. They are a starting point for understanding patterns over time, read alongside reporting from humanitarian organizations.