Nearly seven years after 9-11 it would appear that the threat of terrorism has not diminished. Attacks on civilians seem to be a daily occurence, especially in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

But a new Canadian report is challenging that widely-held consensus.

The Human Security Project at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver took data that three major terrorism research institutions in the US had gathered between 1998 and 2006. What they found was a sharp net decline in the incidence of terrorist violence around the world.