Global Peace Index, Iceland 1st, US on 88th

Some time ago I came across this term and I thought it might be interesting to plan future travels based on it (i.e. visit the countries that are at the top of the list).

When was the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) established and why?

IEP was established in 2009 in order to study the relationship between business, peace, and economic development and to provide tools for understanding and analysing the value of peace. IEP grew out of a key finding of the Global Peace Index (first published in 2007) – that there is a significant relationship between peacefulness and national wealth.

What is the Global Peace Index?

The GPI is the leading objective measure of the relative peacefulness of the world’s nation states. It currently ranks 153 countries according to their levels of peace (defined, for this purpose, as the absence of violence) and provides several unique data metrics for identifying the presence of peace. The GPI is guided by an independent international panel of experts of scholars from leading academic and non-government institutions. It was launched in 2007 and is published annually.

Top of the list

The image is a table listing the top 20 countries ranked by score. The columns are labeled "RANK," "COUNTRY," and "SCORE." The rankings are as follows:

1. Iceland - 1.113
2. Denmark - 1.239
3. New Zealand - 1.239
4. Canada - 1.317
5. Japan - 1.326
6. Austria - 1.328
7. Ireland - 1.328
8. Slovenia - 1.330
9. Finland - 1.348
10. Switzerland - 1.349
11. Belgium - 1.376
12. Qatar - 1.395
13. Czech Republic - 1.396
14. Sweden - 1.419
15. Germany - 1.424
16. Portugal - 1.470
17. Hungary - 1.476
18. Norway - 1.480
19. Bhutan - 1.481
20. Malaysia - 1.485

Unites States is on position 88 between Equatorial Guinea and China !

Information from www.visionofhumanity.org

The image is a world map displaying the Global Peace Index for the year 2012. Countries are color-coded based on their peace levels, with a gradient ranging from dark green (most peaceful) to dark red (least peaceful). Some countries are marked in gray, indicating no data available. The map shows that countries in North America, Western Europe, and parts of Asia and Oceania are generally more peaceful, while countries in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia are less peaceful.

3 Comments

  1. The survey punishes nations for having a large standing army. I guess helping to keep the peace earns the US no brownie points. Oh well.

  2. @Chris, how about punishing countries with easy access to guns, guaranteed in their constitution!

  3. If wealth plays into this I don’t understand how Iceland would be at the top as they have financial and currency issues as does Ireland. Maybe it’s like winning a Nobel peace prize before you do anything peaceful, just political.

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