The 2018 Global Peace Index is out and it shows that peace declined slightly in the last year.
Of the 163 countries ranked, 71 countries improved, while 92 countries deteriorated. Iceland ranked the most peaceful country in the world for the 10th year in a row, followed by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark. Canada was 6th and the USA ranked 121st.
Syria was the least peaceful country, followed by Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remained the world’s least peaceful region. It is home to four of the ten least peaceful countries in the world, with no country from the region ranked higher than 40th on the GPI. Europe, which has been the world’s most peaceful region since the inception of the index, deteriorated in peacefulness for the third straight year.
In the last decade peace has declined 2.38% on average, and the gap between the least and most peaceful countries continues to grow. Since 2008, the 25 least peaceful countries declined on average by 12.7 per cent, while the 25 most peaceful countries improved by 0.9 per cent on average.
Violence cost the global economy $14.76 trillion (PPP) in the last year alone. That’s 12.4% of the world’s GDP, or $1,988 per person. The index shows that in the last 70 years, per capita GDP growth has been three times higher in highly peaceful countries.
In one positive trend, Sub-Saharan Africa saw four of the five largest improvements in peacefulness this year and countries like The Gambia, Liberia and Iraq all improved.
For the full report, released by Vision of Humanity, see here.
