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Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which measures the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. [2] The GPI ranks 163 independent states and territories (collectively accounting for 99.7 per cent of the world's population) according to their levels of peacefulness. In the past decade, the GPI has presented trends of increased global violence and less peacefulness. [3]
The GPI is developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected and collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Index was first launched in May 2009, with subsequent reports being released annually. In 2015 it ranked 165 countries, up from 121 in 2007. The study was conceived by Australian technology entrepreneur Steve Killelea, and is endorsed by individuals such as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President of Finland and 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, economist Jeffrey Sachs, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson and former United States president Jimmy Carter.[ citation needed ] The updated index is released each year at events in London, Washington, DC, and at the United Nations Secretariat in New York.
The 2023 GPI indicates Iceland, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Austria to be the most peaceful countries, and Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo to be the least peaceful. [4] The key findings of the 2023 GPI include a less peaceful world over the last 15 years, a 5 per cent deterioration in the global level of peace over the last 15 years and a growing inequality in peace between the most and least peaceful countries.
The main findings of the 2023 Global Peace Index are: [4]
In assessing peacefulness, the GPI investigates the extent to which countries are involved in ongoing domestic and international conflicts and seeks to evaluate the level of harmony or discord within a nation. Ten indicators broadly assess what might be described as safety and security in society. Their assertion is that low crime rates, minimal incidences of terrorist acts and violent demonstrations, harmonious relations with neighbouring countries, a stable political scene, and a small proportion of the population being internally displaced or refugees can be suggestive of peacefulness.
In 2017, 23 indicators were used to establish peacefulness scores for each country. The indicators were originally selected with the assistance of an expert panel in 2007 and are reviewed by the expert panel on an annual basis. The scores for each indicator are normalized on a scale of 1–5, whereby qualitative indicators are banded into five groupings, and quantitative ones are scored from 1–5, to the third decimal point. A table of the indicators is below. [5] In the table, UCDP stands for the Uppsala Conflict Data Program maintained by the University of Uppsala in Sweden, EIU for The Economist Intelligence Unit, UNSCT for the United Nations Survey of Criminal Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, ICPS is the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College London, IISS for the International Institute for Strategic Studies publication The Military Balance, and SIPRI for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Arms Transfers Database.
Indicator | Source | Coding | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Number and duration of internal conflicts [lower-alpha 1] | UCDP, IEP | Total number |
2 | Number of deaths from external organized conflict | UCDP Armed Conflict Dataset | Total number |
3 | Number of deaths from internal organized conflict | International Institute for Strategic Studies, Armed Conflict Database | Total number |
4 | Number, duration, and role in external conflicts | UCDP Battle-related Deaths Dataset, IEP | Total number |
5 | Intensity of organized internal conflict | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
6 | Relations with neighbouring countries | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
7 | Level of perceived criminality in society | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
8 | Number of refugees and displaced persons as percentage of population | UNHCR and IDMC | Refugee population by country or territory of origin, plus the number of a country's internally displaced people (IDP's) as a percentage of the country's total population |
9 | Political instability | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
10 | Impact of terrorism | Global Terrorism Index (IEP) | Quantitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
11 | Political terror | Amnesty International and US State Department | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
12 | Number of homicides per 100,000 people | UNODC Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (CTS); EIU estimates | Total number |
13 | Level of violent crime | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
14 | Likelihood of violent demonstrations | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
15 | Number of jailed persons per 100,000 people | World Prison Brief, Institute for Criminal Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London | Total number |
16 | Number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people | UNODC CTS; EIU estimates | Total number; Civil police force distinct from national guards or local militia [lower-alpha 2] |
17 | Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP | The Military Balance and IISS | Cash outlays of central or federal government to meet costs of national armed forces, as a percentage of GDP, scores from 1 to 5 based on percentages [lower-alpha 3] |
18 | Number of armed-services personnel per 100,000 | The Military Balance and IISS | All full-time active armed-services personnel |
19 | Volume of transfers of major conventional weapons as recipient (imports) per 100,000 people | SIPRI Arms Transfers Database | Imports of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people [lower-alpha 4] |
20 | Volume of transfers of major conventional weapons as supplier (exports) per 100,000 people | SIPRI Arms Transfers Database | Exports of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people |
21 | Financial contribution to UN peacekeeping missions | United Nations Committee on Contributions and IEP | Percentage of countries' "outstanding payments versus their annual assessment to the budget of the current peacekeeping missions" over an average of three years, scored from 1–5 scale based on percentage of promised contributions met |
22 | Nuclear and heavy weapons capability | The Military Balance, IISS, SIPRI, UN Register of Conventional Arms and IEP | 1–5 scale based on accumulated points; 1 point per armoured vehicle and artillery pieces, 5 points per tank, 20 points per combat aircraft, 100 points per warship, 1000 points for aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine [lower-alpha 5] |
23 | Ease of access to small arms and light weapons | EIU | Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5 |
Indicators not already ranked on a 1 to 5 scale were converted by using the following formula: x = [x - min(x)] / [max(x) - min(x)], where max(x) and min(x) are the highest and lowest values for that indicator of the countries ranked in the index. The 0 to 1 scores that resulted were then converted to the 1 to 5 scale. Individual indicators were then weighted according to the expert panel's judgment of their importance. The scores were then tabulated into two weighted sub-indices: internal peace, weighted at 60% of a country's final score, and external peace, weighted at 40% of a country's final score. "Negative Peace", defined as the absence of violence or of the fear of violence, is used as the definition of peace to create the Global Peace Index. An additional aim of the GPI database is to facilitate deeper study of the concept of positive peace, or those attitudes, institutions, and structures that drive peacefulness in society. The GPI also examines relationships between peace and reliable international measures, including democracy and transparency, education and material well-being. As such, it seeks to understand the relative importance of a range of potential determinants, or "drivers", which may influence the nurturing of peaceful societies, both internally and externally. [6]
Statistical analysis is applied to GPI data to uncover specific conditions conducive of peace. Researchers have determined that Positive Peace, which includes the attitudes, institutions, and structures that pre-empt conflict and facilitate functional societies, is the main driver of peace. The eight pillars of positive peace are well-functioning government, sound business environment, acceptance of the rights of others, good relations with neighbours, free flow of information, high levels of human capital, low levels of corruption, and equitable distribution of resources. Well-functioning government, low levels of corruption, acceptance of the rights of others, and good relations with neighbours are more important in countries suffering from high levels of violence. Free flow of information and sound business environment become more important when a country is approaching the global average level of peacefulness, also described as the Mid-Peace level. Low levels of corruption is the only Pillar that is strongly significant across all three levels of peacefulness. This suggests it is an important transformational factor at all stages of a nation's development.
Rank | Country | Score | Change |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Iceland | 1.124 | |
2 | Denmark | 1.310 | 1 |
3 | Ireland | 1.312 | 1 |
4 | New Zealand | 1.313 | 2 |
5 | Austria | 1.316 | 1 |
6 | Singapore | 1.332 | 4 |
7 | Portugal | 1.333 | 1 |
8 | Slovenia | 1.334 | 4 |
9 | Japan | 1.336 | |
10 | Switzerland | 1.339 | 1 |
11 | Canada | 1.350 | 2 |
12 | Czechia | 1.379 | 5 |
13 | Finland | 1.399 | 3 |
14 | Croatia | 1.450 | 1 |
15 | Germany | 1.456 | 2 |
16 | Netherlands | 1.490 | 5 |
17 | Bhutan | 1.496 | 5 |
18 | Hungary | 1.508 | 4 |
19 | Malaysia | 1.513 | |
20 | Belgium | 1.523 | 4 |
21 | Qatar | 1.524 | 1 |
22 | Australia | 1.525 | 4 |
23 | Mauritius | 1.546 | 5 |
24 | Norway | 1.550 | 6 |
25 | Estonia | 1.563 | 1 |
26 | Slovakia | 1.578 | 6 |
27 | Latvia | 1.582 | 3 |
28 | Sweden | 1.625 | 1 |
29 | Poland | 1.634 | 6 |
30 | Bulgaria | 1.643 | 5 |
31 | Romania | 1.649 | 4 |
32 | Spain | 1.649 | |
33 | Taiwan | 1.649 | 2 |
34 | Italy | 1.662 | 2 |
35 | Kuwait | 1.669 | 3 |
36 | Lithuania | 1.671 | 2 |
37 | United Kingdom | 1.693 | 1 |
38 | North Macedonia | 1.713 | 1 |
39 | Costa Rica | 1.731 | 2 |
40 | Albania | 1.745 | |
41 | Vietnam | 1.745 | 4 |
42 | Botswana | 1.762 | 6 |
43 | South Korea | 1.763 | 6 |
44 | Mongolia | 1.765 | 5 |
45 | Montenegro | 1.772 | 5 |
46 | Laos | 1.779 | 3 |
47 | Sierra Leone | 1.792 | |
48 | Oman | 1.794 | 18 |
49 | Timor Leste | 1.796 | 3 |
50 | Uruguay | 1.798 | 5 |
51 | Ghana | 1.799 | 8 |
52 | Senegal | 1.827 | 4 |
53 | Indonesia | 1.829 | 12 |
54 | Argentina | 1.837 | 10 |
55 | Madagascar | 1.846 | |
56 | Namibia | 1.859 | 6 |
57 | Moldova | 1.873 | 4 |
58 | Chile | 1.874 | 5 |
59 | The Gambia | 1.888 | 8 |
60 | Greece | 1.890 | 6 |
61 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1.892 | 4 |
62 | Jordan | 1.895 | 6 |
63 | Zambia | 1.898 | 4 |
64 | Cyprus | 1.904 | 1 |
65 | Serbia | 1.921 | 7 |
66 | Armenia | 1.929 | 3 |
67 | France | 1.939 | |
68= | Panama | 1.942 | 8 |
68= | Paraguay | 1.942 | 12 |
70= | Trinidad and Tobago | 1.946 | 1 |
70= | Kosovo | 1.946 | 5 |
70= | Liberia | 1.946 | 8 |
73 | Cambodia | 1.947 | 1 |
74 | Malawi | 1.970 | 4 |
75 | United Arab Emirates | 1.979 | 3 |
76 | Kazakhstan | 1.980 | 21 |
77 | Jamaica | 1.986 | 3 |
78 | Bolivia | 2.001 | 1 |
79 | Nepal | 2.006 | 5 |
80 | China | 2.009 | 6 |
81 | Tunisia | 2.010 | 1 |
82 | Equatorial Guinea | 2.013 | 19 |
83 | Dominican Republic | 2.019 | 5 |
84= | Angola | 2.020 | 9 |
84= | Morocco | 2.020 | 1 |
86 | Uzbekistan | 2.033 | 2 |
87 | Guinea Bissau | 2.045 | 12 |
88= | Bangladesh | 2.051 | 8 |
88= | Rwanda | 2.051 | 3 |
90 | Ivory Coast | 2.053 | 18 |
91 | Tanzania | 2.058 | 2 |
92 | Thailand | 2.061 | 13 |
93 | Gabon | 2.068 | 6 |
94 | Georgia | 2.071 | 1 |
95 | Azerbaijan | 2.090 | 15 |
96 | Algeria | 2.094 | 8 |
97= | Ecuador | 2.095 | 24 |
97= | Papua New Guinea | 2.095 | 8 |
99 | Cuba | 2.103 | 1 |
100 | Turkmenistan | 2.107 | 3 |
101 | Kyrgyzstan | 2.110 | 16 |
102 | Tajikistan | 2.114 | 8 |
103= | Guatemala | 2.130 | 2 |
103= | Peru | 2.130 | 1 |
103= | Togo | 2.130 | 4 |
106 | Guyana | 2.134 | 5 |
107 | Sri Lanka | 2.136 | 18 |
108 | Bahrain | 2.145 | 1 |
109 | Swaziland | 2.168 | 17 |
110 | Benin | 2.177 | 1 |
111 | Lesotho | 2.193 | 13 |
112 | Djibouti | 2.196 | 1 |
113 | Republic of the Congo | 2.210 | 1 |
114 | Mauritania | 2.228 | 4 |
115 | Philippines | 2.229 | 6 |
116 | Belarus | 2.248 | 4 |
117 | Kenya | 2.254 | 2 |
118 | Mozambique | 2.259 | 2 |
119 | Saudi Arabia | 2.260 | 5 |
120 | Honduras | 2.265 | 5 |
121 | Egypt | 2.267 | 5 |
122 | El Salvador | 2.279 | 6 |
123 | Nicaragua | 2.294 | |
124= | Zimbabwe | 2.300 | 3 |
124= | Uganda | 2.300 | 1 |
126 | India | 2.314 | 2 |
127 | Guinea | 2.359 | 2 |
128 | Burundi | 2.393 | 6 |
129 | Haiti | 2.395 | 17 |
130 | South Africa | 2.405 | 8 |
131 | United States | 2.448 | |
132 | Brazil | 2.462 | |
133 | Eritrea | 2.505 | |
134 | Palestine | 2.538 | 4 |
135 | Lebanon | 2.581 | 1 |
136 | Mexico | 2.599 | 3 |
137 | Libya | 2.605 | 14 |
138 | Niger | 2.625 | 2 |
139 | Cameroon | 2.660 | 5 |
140= | Venezuela | 2.693 | 5 |
140= | Colombia | 2.693 | 2 |
142 | Chad | 2.699 | 5 |
143 | Israel | 2.706 | 8 |
144 | Nigeria | 2.713 | 3 |
145 | Myanmar | 2.741 | 7 |
146 | Pakistan | 2.745 | 2 |
147= | Turkey | 2.800 | 5 |
147= | Iran | 2.800 | 1 |
149 | North Korea | 2.848 | 4 |
150 | Burkina Faso | 2.868 | 3 |
151 | Ethiopia | 2.872 | 2 |
152 | Central African Republic | 2.934 | 2 |
153 | Mali | 2.963 | 4 |
154 | Iraq | 3.006 | 3 |
155 | Sudan | 3.023 | |
156 | Somalia | 3.036 | 2 |
157 | Ukraine | 3.043 | 14 |
158 | Russia | 3.142 | 5 |
159 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 3.214 | |
160 | South Sudan | 3.221 | |
161 | Syria | 3.294 | |
162 | Yemen | 3.350 | |
163 | Afghanistan | 3.448 |
Note: The GPI's methodology is updated regularly and is improved to reflect the most up-to-date datasets. Each year's GPI report includes a detailed description of the methodology used. Also, the data is revised periodically and so values from previous years may change accordingly.
These tables contain the scores and ranking published in the official annual reports, for the latest revised data please visit the Interactive world map of the Global Peace Index.
The Index has received endorsements as a political project from a number of major international figures, including the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan; former President of Finland and 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari; the Dalai Lama; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Muhammad Yunus; and former United States President Jimmy Carter. [8]
Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia University said: "The GPI continues its pioneering work in drawing the world's attention to the massive resources we are squandering in violence and conflict." [9] Some at Australian National University say that the GPI report presents "the latest and most comprehensive global data on trends in peace, violence and war" and "provides the world's best analysis of the statistical factors associated with long-term peace, as well as economic analysis on the macroeconomic impacts of everyday violence and war on the global economy." [10]
According to The Economist, the weighting of military expenditure "may seem to give heart to freeloaders: countries that enjoy peace precisely because others (often the USA) care for their defence". [11]
The Global Peace Index has been criticized for not including indicators specifically relating to violence against women and children. [12]
The impact of Global Peace Index has been lower on the academic study of war and peace than on international organizations. [13]
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Human Development Report Office.
Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is a metric that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product (GDP). The GPI is designed to take fuller account of the well-being of a nation, only a part of which pertains to the size of the nation's economy, by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP. For instance, some models of GPI decrease in value when the poverty rate increases. The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.
The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) is an economic indicator intended to replace the gross domestic product (GDP), which is the main macroeconomic indicator of System of National Accounts (SNA). Rather than simply adding together all expenditures like the GDP, consumer spending is balanced by such factors as income distribution and cost associated with pollution and other unsustainable costs. The calculation excludes defence expenditures and considers a wider range of harmful effects of economic growth. It is similar to the genuine progress indicator (GPI).
The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain". The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995.
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The exact function is a little more complex, but conceptually it approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life expectancy and dividing that by the ecological footprint. The index is weighted to give progressively higher scores to nations with lower ecological footprints.
The following are international rankings of China.
Stephen Killelea AM is an Australian IT entrepreneur and founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank.
The where-to-be-born index was an index last published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2013, which aimed to measure which country would provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years after its publication.
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) is a data collection program on organized violence, based at Uppsala University in Sweden. The UCDP is a leading provider of data on organized violence and armed conflict, and it is the oldest ongoing data collection project for civil war, with a history of almost 40 years. UCDP data are systematically collected and have global coverage, comparability across cases and countries, and long time series. Data are updated annually and are publicly available, free of charge. Furthermore, preliminary data on events of organized violence in Africa is released on a monthly basis.
The Legatum Prosperity Index is an annual ranking developed by the Legatum Institute, an independent educational charity founded and part-funded by the private investment firm Legatum. The ranking is based on a variety of factors including wealth, economic growth, education, health, personal well-being, and quality of life.
Released by UNESCO, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) is a socioeconomic index usually designed to measure the relative access to education of males and females. It is used by international organizations, particularly in measuring the progress of developing countries. For example, some UNESCO documents consider gender parity in literacy.
Canada ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education levels, gender equality, public services, public security and environmental sustainability. It ranks among the lowest of the most developed countries for housing affordability, healthcare services and foreign direct investment.
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) is a global think tank headquartered in Sydney, Australia with branches in New York City, Mexico City and Oxford. IEP studies the relationship between peace, business, and prosperity, and seeks to promote understanding of the cultural, economic, and political factors that drive peacefulness. It is a registered Australian charity and works in partnership with the Aspen Institute, Economists for Peace and Security the United Nations Global Compact, Center for Strategic and International Studies and Cranfield University. It also collaborates with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, UNDP and UN Peacebuilding Support Office. It is chaired by technology entrepreneur Steve Killelea founder of IR.
The United States Peace Index (USPI) is a measurement of American States and cities by their peacefulness. Created by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the creators of the Global Peace Index, it is said to be the first in a series of National sub-divisions by their peacefulness. The USPI was created first due to plentiful data and a large amount of diversity between states for level of peace. The United States ranked 88/158 on the Global Peace index for 2012. The U.S. index was released on 6 April 2011 and the second edition was released on 24 April 2012.
The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a report published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), and was developed by IT entrepreneur and IEP's founder Steve Killelea. The index provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2000. It is an attempt to systematically rank the nations of the world according to terrorist activity. The index combines a number of factors associated with terrorist attacks to build an explicit picture of the impact of terrorism, illustrating trends, and providing a data series for analysis by researchers and policymakers. It produces a composite score in order to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism.
The United Kingdom Peace Index (UKPI) is a measurement of the United Kingdom's cities by their peacefulness. Created by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the creators of the Global Peace Index and the United States Peace Index, the United Kingdom ranked 29/158 on the Global Peace index for 2012. The UKPI was released in April 2013 and provides a comprehensive measure of the levels of peacefulness within the United Kingdom from 2003 to 2012. Peace is defined as the absence of violence or the absence of the fear of violence. The UKPI also provides an analysis of the socio-economic factors associated with peacefulness, as well as an estimate of the economic benefits that would flow from increases in peace.
The Mexico Peace Index (MPI) is one in a series of National Peace Indices produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The MPI provides a comprehensive measure of peacefulness in Mexico, the fifth edition of the MPI was released in 2017. The report is released in both Spanish and English, and analyzes the economic benefits that would occur from increases in peace, and provides an estimate relating to the economic impact violence has had on Mexico.
The Good Country Index measures how much each of the 163 countries on the list contribute to the planet, and to the human race, through their policies and behaviors.
Med Jones is an American economist. He is the president of International Institute of Management, a U.S. based research organization. His work at the institute focuses on economic, investment, and business strategies.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, the official wording is: "Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels". The Goal has 12 targets and 23 indicators.