Global Peace Index

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Global Peace Index

The Global Peace Index (GPI) is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness. It is maintained by the Institute for Economics and Peace and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies, or military advice....
s, together with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight " universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance....
, Australia with data analysed by the Economist Intelligence Unit

Economist Intelligence Unit

The Economist Intelligence Unit is part of The Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S....
. The list was launched first in May 2007 and then recently in May 2008 and is claimed to be the first study to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Global Peace Index'

Start a new discussion about 'Global Peace Index'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Think tank

University of Sydney

Economist Intelligence Unit

Steve Killelea

Stephen Killelea is an Australia IT entrepreneur. He began his career, after doing a crash course in computing and working for a computer manufacturer, by developing a product for computer systems management that became internationally successful and led him to set up a US company that went public....
and is endorsed by individuals such as the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is a lineage of religious leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and was the political leader of Lhasa-based Tibetan government between the 17th century and 1959....
, archbishop Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of History of South Africa in the Apartheid Era....
, Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics where he developed the concept of microcredit....
, economist Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey David Sachs is an United States economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's Columbia Mailman School of Public Health....
, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the President_of_Ireland#List_of_Presidents_of_Ireland, and first female, President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002....
and former US president Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize....
. Factors examined by the authors include internal factors such as levels of violence and crime within the country and factors in a country's external relations such as military expenditure and wars.

Methodology

The research team was headed by The Economist Intelligence Unit in conjunction with academics and experts in the field of peace. They measured countries' peacefulness based on wide range of indicators, 24 in all. A table of the indicators is below. In the table, UCDP stands for the Uppsala Conflict Data Program maintained by the University of Uppsala in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
, EIU for The Economist Intelligence Unit, UNSCT for the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
Survey of Criminal Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, ICPS is the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London

King's College London

King's College London is a United Kingdom higher education institution and co-founding constituent college of the University of London. Founded by George IV of the United Kingdom and the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington in 1829, its royal charter is predated, in England, only by those of the Universities of University of Oxford and Un...
, IISS for the International Institute for Strategic Studies

International Institute for Strategic Studies

The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a United Kingdom research institute in the area of International relations. It describes itself as "the world?s leading authority on political-military conflict"....
publication The Military Balance 2007, SIPRI for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Arms Transfers Database, and BICC for the Bonn International Center for Conversion

Bonn International Center for Conversion

The Bonn International Center for Conversion , established in 1994, is a research institute located in Bonn, Germany. While the focus of BICC's work initially centered around the conversion of military facilities and equipment to civilian uses , the institute's research has expanded to other areas of peace and development, including peacebuil...
.

#	Indicator	Source	Year(s)	Coding
1	Number of external and internal wars fought	UCDP	2000 to 2005	Total number
2	Estimated deaths due to external wars	UCDP	2004 to 2005	Total number
3	Estimated deaths due to internal wars	UCDP	2004 to 2005	Total number
4	Level of organized internal conflict	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
5	Relations with neighbouring countries	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
6	Level of distrust in other citizens	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
7	Number of displaced persons as percentage of population	World Bank	2003	Refugee population by percentage of the origin country's population
8	Political instability	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
9	Level of respect for human rights (political terror scale)	Amnesty International	2005	Qualitative measure
10	Potential for terrorist acts	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
11	Number of homicides	UNSCT	2004 and 2002	Intentional homicides, including infanticide, per 100,000 people
12	Level of violent crime	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
13	Likelihood of violent demonstrations	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
14	Number of jailed persons	ICPS	2006	Persons incarcerated per 100,000 people
15	Number of police and security officers	UNSCT	2002 and 2000	Civil security officers per 100,000 people
16	Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP	IISS	2004	Cash outlays for armed forces, as a percentage of GDP
17	Number of armed services personnel	IISS	2004	Full-time military personnel per 100,000 people
18	Imports of major conventional weapons	SIPRI	2001 to 2005	Imports of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
19	Exports of major conventional weapons	SIPRI	2001 to 2005	Exports of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
20	United Nations deployments	IISS	2006 to 2007	Total number
21	Non-United Nations deployments	IISS	2006 to 2007	Total number
22	Number of heavy weapons	BICC	2003	Weapons per 100,000 people
23	Ease of access to small arms and light weapons	EIU	2007	Qualitative scale, ranked 1 to 5
24	Military capability or sophistication	EIU	2007	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 research team'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.

The main findings of the Global Peace Index are:

Peace correlated to indicators such as income, schooling and the level of regional integration
Peaceful countries often shared high levels of transparency of government and low corruption
Small, stable countries which are part of regional blocks are most likely to get a higher ranking.

Statistical analysis was applied to discover more specific drivers of peace. Specifically, the research team looked for indicators that were included and excluded from the index that had high levels of correlation with the overall score and rank of countries. Among the statistically significant indicators that were not used in the analysis were the functionality of a country's government, regional integration, hostility to foreigners, importance of religion in national life, and GDP per capita.

Notably absent from the 2007 study are Belarus

Belarus

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north....
, Iceland

Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
, many Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
n nations, Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
, North Korea

North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
and Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
. They were not included because reliable data for the 24 indicators was not available.

Criticism and response to criticism

The Economist
The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international relations publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London....
, in publishing the index, admitted that, "the index will run into some flak." Specifically, 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 defense." The true utility of the index may lie not in its specific rankings of countries now, but in how those rankings change over time, thus tracking when and how countries become more or less peaceful.

The Peace Index has been criticised for not including indicators specifically relating to violence against women and children. Riane Eisler, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, argued that, "to put it mildly, this blind spot makes the index very inaccurate." She mentions a number of specific cases, including Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, where she claims 90% of women are subject to genital mutilation, China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, where, she says, "female infanticide is still a problem," and Chile

Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
, where 26% of women "suffered at least one episode of violence by a partner, according to a 2000 UNICEF study."

The Index has received endorsements from a number of major international figures, including the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of History of South Africa in the Apartheid Era....
, Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics where he developed the concept of microcredit....
and former United States President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize....
. Steve Killelea, the Australian philanthropist who conceived the idea of the Index and created a definition for the Peace Industry, argues that the Index "is a wake-up call for leaders around the globe."

2007-2008 Global Peace Index rankings

Nations considered more peaceful have lower index scores. Countries with rankings in green are in the most peaceful 20% for that year; those in red are in the bottom 20%.

Country	2008 Rank	2008 Score	2007 Rank	2007 Score	2007–2008 Change
Iceland Iceland Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....	1	1.176
Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....	2	1.343	3	1.377	+01
Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....	3	1.343	1	1.357	-02
New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....	4	1.350	2	1.363	-02
Japan Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....	5	1.358	5	1.413	0
Ireland Republic of Ireland Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....	6	1.410	4	1.396	-02
Portugal Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....	7	1.412	9	1.481	+02
Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....	8	1.432	6	1.447	-02
Luxembourg Luxembourg Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany....	9	1.446
Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....	10	1.449	10	1.483	0
Canada Canada Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....	11	1.451	8	1.481	-03
Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....	12	1.465	14	1.526	+02
Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....	13	1.468	7	1.478	-06
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....	14	1.475	12	1.523	-02
Belgium Belgium * A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....	15	1.485	11	1.498	-04
Slovenia Slovenia Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....	16	1.491	15	1.539	-01
Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east....	17	1.501	13	1.524	-04
Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....	18	1.576	18	1.575	0
Chile Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....	19	1.576	16	1.568	-03
Slovakia Slovakia Slovakia . It was amended in September 1998 to allow direct election of the president and again in February 2001 due to EU admission requirements....	20	1.576	17	1.571	-03
Uruguay Uruguay Uruguay is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area....	21	1.606	24	1.661	+03
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....	22	1.607	20	1.620	-02
Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....	23	1.608	23	1.657	0
Romania Romania Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....	24	1.611	26	1.682	+02
Oman Oman Oman , officially the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab country in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates on the northwest, Saudi Arabia on the west and Yemen on the southwest....	25	1.612	22	1.641	-03
Bhutan Bhutan The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked nation in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by India and to the north by the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China....	26	1.616	19	1.611	-07
Australia Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....	27	1.652	25	1.664	-02
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....	28	1.653	33	1.724	+05
Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....	29	1.673	29	1.692	0
Spain Spain Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....	30	1.683	21	1.633	-09
Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....	31	1.687	27	1.683	-04
South Korea South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea , ), often referred to as Korea and the "names of Korea#Revival of the names", is a Semi-presidential system republic in East Asia, located in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula....	32	1.691	32	1.719	0
Qatar Qatar Qatar , officially the State of Qatar , is an Arab emirate in Southwest Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula....	33	1.694	30	1.702	-03
Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east....	34	1.701	31	1.702	-03
Estonia Estonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Finland across the Gulf of Finland, to the west by Sweden across the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russia ....	35	1.702	28	1.684	-07
France France France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....	36	1.707	34	1.729	-02
Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....	37	1.720	35	1.729	-02
Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....	37	1.721	37	1.744	0
Latvia Latvia Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....	39	1.723	47	1.848	+08
Ghana Ghana The Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa. It borders C?te d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south....	40	1.723	40	1.765	0
Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....	41	1.723	43	1.788	+02
United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia....	42	1.745	38	1.747	-04
Madagascar Madagascar Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....	43	1.770	41	1.766	-02
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...	44	1.779	36	1.731	-08
Kuwait Kuwait The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab emirate on the coast of the Persian Gulf, enclosed by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west....	45	1.786	46	1.818	+01
Botswana Botswana The Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Citizens of Botswana are called "Batswana" , regardless of ethnicity. Formerly a British protectorate of Bechuanaland Protectorate, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth of Nations on 30 September 1966....	46	1.792	42	1.786	-04
Tunisia Tunisia Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast....	47	1.797	39	1.762	-08
Panama Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America and, in turn, North America. Situated on an isthmus connecting North and South America, some categorize it as a transcontinental nation....	48	1.797	45	1.798	-03
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....	49	1.801	49	1.898	0
Mozambique Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest....	50	1.803	50	1.909	0
Laos Laos Laos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west....	51	1.810
Cyprus Cyprus Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....	52	1.847	51	1.915	-01
Zambia Zambia The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....	53	1.856	53	1.930	0
Greece Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....	54	1.867	44	1.791	-10
Gabon Gabon Gabon is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea to the west, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and Cameroon to the north, with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south....	55	1.878	56	1.952	+01
Argentina Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....	56	1.895	52	1.923	+01
Bulgaria Bulgaria The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....	57	1.903	54	1.936	-03
Tanzania Tanzania Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....	58	1.919	57	1.966	-01
Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua officially the Republic of Nicaragua , is a representative democracy republic. It is the largest state in Central America with an area of 130,000 km2, about the size of the state of New York....	59	1.919	66	2.020	+07
Croatia Croatia Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....	60	1.926	67	2.030	+07
Libya Libya Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....	61	1.927	58	1.967	-03
Cuba Cuba The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....	62	1.954	59	1.968	-03
Morocco Morocco Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....	63	1.954	48	1.893	-15
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a Spanish-speaking country located in Central Africa. With an area of 28,000 km2 it is one of the smallest countries in continental Africa, having a population estimated at half a million....	64	1.964	71	2.059	+07
Jordan Jordan Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....	65	1.969	63	1.997	-02
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the Balkans peninsula of South Eastern Europe with an area of 51,129 square kilometres . Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south, Bosnia and Herzegovina is Landlocked#Nearly landlocked, except for 26 kilometres of the Adriatic Sea coas...	66	1.974	75	2.089	+09
China China China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....	67	1.981	60	1.980	-07
Indonesia Indonesia The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....	68	1.983	78	2.111	+10
Egypt Egypt Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....	69	1.987	73	2.068	+04
Paraguay Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay , is one of the only two landlocked countries in South America . It lies on both banks of the Paraguay River and is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest....	70	1.997	55	1.946	-15
Senegal Senegal Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the S?n?gal River in West Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south....	71	2.011	65	2.017	-06
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....	72	2.018	61	1.995	-11
Malawi Malawi The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique, which surrounds it on the east, south and west....	73	2.024	68	2.038	-05
Bahrain Bahrain The Kingdom of Bahrain, in , , literally Kingdom of the Two Seas).Bahrain is an Arabic island country in the Persian Gulf ruled by the Al Khalifa regime....	74	2.025	62	1.995	-12
Syria Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....	75	2.027	77	2.106	+02
Rwanda Rwanda The Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania....	76	2.030
Namibia Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....	77	2.042	64	2.003	-13
Bolivia Bolivia The Republic of Bolivia , named after Sim?n Bol?var, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west....	78	2.043	69	2.052	-09
Albania Albania Albania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a country in Balkans. It is bordered by Greece to the south-east, Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, and the Republic of Macedonia to the east....	79	2.044
Peru Peru Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....	80	2.046	70	2.056	-10
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso Burkina Faso , also known by its short-form name Burkina, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and C?te d'Ivoire to the south west....	81	2.062
Dominican Republic Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are List of divided islands, Saint Martin being the other....	82	2.069	74	2.071	-08
Moldova Moldova Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south....	83	2.091	72	2.059	-11
Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....	84	2.096	80	2.150	-04
Serbia Serbia Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....	85	2.110	84	2.181	-01
Bangladesh Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south....	86	2.118	86	2.219	0
Republic of Macedonia Republic of Macedonia The Republic of Macedonia , , often referred to simply as Macedonia, is a landlocked country on the Balkans in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south and Albania to the west....	87	2.119	82	2.170	-05
Mongolia Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....	88	2.155
El Salvador El Salvador El Salvador is the smallest country in the Americas and Central America by size, and the most densely populated nation in Central America. It borders on the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras....	89	2.163	89	2.244	0
Brazil Brazil Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....	90	2.168	83	2.173	-07
Cambodia Cambodia The Kingdom of Cambodia is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 13 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh....	91	2.179	85	2.197	-06
Cameroon Cameroon The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary state of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south....	92	2.182	76	2.093	-16
Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....	93	2.191	79	2.125	-14
Belarus Belarus Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north....	94	2.194
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....	95	2.224	88	2.223	-07
Jamaica Jamaica Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....	96	2.226	81	2.164	-15
	97	2.227	96	2.317	-01
Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an island country in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles....	98	2.230	94	2.286	-04
Mali Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa, bordering Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the C?te d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west....	99	2.238
Ecuador Ecuador Ecuador , officially the , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west....	100	2.274	87	2.219	-13
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan , is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, located partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia....	101	2.287	101	2.448	0
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a Turkic peoples country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic ....	102	2.302
Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast....	103	2.328	93	2.285	-10
Honduras Honduras Honduras is a democratic republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras ....	104	2.335	98	2.390	-06
Iran Iran Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....	105	2.341	97	2.320	-08
Yemen Yemen Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....	106	2.352	95	2.309	-11
India India India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....	107	2.355	109	2.530	+02
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south....	108	2.357	90	2.246	-18
Haiti Haiti Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....	109	2.362
Angola Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordering Namibia to the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia to the east, and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean....	110	2.364	112	2.587	+02
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....	111	2.377	110	2.542	-01
Algeria Algeria Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....	112	2.378	107	2.503	-05
Philippines Philippines The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....	113	2.385	100	2.428	-13
Uganda Uganda The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania....	114	2.391	104	2.489	-10
Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....	115	2.403	92	2.272	-23
South Africa South Africa The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....	116	2.412	99	2.399	-17
Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo , also known as Congo-Brazzaville or the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda , and the Gulf of Guinea....	117	2.417
Thailand Thailand The Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar....	118	2.424	105	2.491	-13
Kenya Kenya The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....	119	2.429	91	2.258	-28
Mauritania Mauritania Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest....	120	2.435
Ethiopia Ethiopia Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....	121	2.439	103	2.479	-18
Cote d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire , formerly Ivory Coast, officially the , is a country in West Africa. The government officially discourages the use of the name Ivory Coast in English, preferring the French name to be used in all languages ....	122	2.451	113	2.638	-09
Venezuela Venezuela Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....	123	2.505	102	2.453	-21
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....	124	2.513	106	2.495	-18
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....	125	2.584	111	2.575	-14
Myanmar Myanmar Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia, or Indochina. The country is bordered by the People's Republic of China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest with...	126	2.590	108	2.524	-18
Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...	127	2.694	115	2.697	-12
Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo , is a country in central Africa with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest list of African countries in order of geographical area....	128	2.707
Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federation constitutional republic comprising States of Nigeria and one Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria....	129	2.724	117	2.898	-12
Colombia Colombia Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....	130	2.757	116	2.770	-14
Russia Russia Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....	131	2.777	118	2.903	-13
Lebanon Lebanon Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....	132	2.840	114	2.662	-18
North Korea North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....	133	2.850
Central African Republic Central African Republic The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the east, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west....	134	2.857
Chad Chad Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west....	135	3.007
Israel Israel Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....	136	3.052	119	3.033	-17
Afghanistan Afghanistan Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....	137	3.126
Sudan Sudan Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....	138	3.189	120	3.182	-18
Somalia Somalia Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa....	139	3.293
Iraq Iraq Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....	140	3.514	121	3.437	-19

Global Peace Index

Methodology

Criticism and response to criticism

2007-2008 Global Peace Index rankings

External links