This map shows the Global Peace Index (GPI) rankings for the 153 countries around the world in indicators covering crime, terrorism, government, democracy and respect for human rights. A lower score indicates a more peaceful country.
The average score for the countries surveyed in the 2011 Global Peace Index is 2.05 (based on a 1-5 scale), a slight rise (reduction in peacefulness) compared with last year, when the average reached 2.02, up from 1.964 in 2009.
Key Findings of 2011:
- The world is less peaceful for the third straight year
- A greater likelihood of violent demonstrations in 33 countries
- Arab Spring unrest heralds biggest ever change in rankings, Libya tumbles 83 spots
- Iceland bounces back from economic woes to top ranking
- Somalia displaces Iraq as world's least peaceful nation
- Violence cost the global economy more than $8.12 trillion in 2010
- Drop in peacefulness strongly tied to conflict between citizens and their governments, not wars with other nations.
What is Global Peace Index?
The Global Peace Index (GPI), the first ever study to rank the nations of the world by their peacefulness and to identify potential drivers of peace, is a core asset of the Institute. 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 tanks with data collected and analysed by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
How is the Peace Index calculated?
The Global Peace Index is calculated on the basis of 23 indicators (see the list below) of the existence or absence of peace were chosen by the panel of experts, which are divided into three broad categories: measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict, measures of safety and security in society and measures of militarization. All scores for each indicator have now been “banded”, either on a scale of 1-5 (for qualitative indicators) or 1-10 (for quantitative data, such as military expenditure or the jailed population, which have then been converted to a 1-5 scale for comparability when compiling the final index). Qualitative indicators in the index have been scored by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s extensive team of country analysts, and gaps in the quantitative data have been filled by estimates by the same team.
- Measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict
- Number of external and internal conflicts fought: 2004-09
- Estimated number of deaths from organized conflict (external)
- Number of deaths from organized conflict (internal)
- Level of organized conflict (internal)
- Relations with neighbouring countries
- Measures of societal safety and security
- Perceptions of criminality in society
- Number of displaced people as a percentage of the population
- Political instability
- Level of disrespect for human rights (Political Terror Scale)
- Potential for terrorist acts
- Number of homicides per 100,000 people
- Level of violent crime
- Likelihood of violent demonstrations
- Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
- Number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people
- Measures of militarization
- Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP
- Number of armed services personnel per 100,000 people
- Volume of transfers (imports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
- Volume of transfers (exports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
- Funding for UN peacekeeping missions: outstanding contributions versus annual assessment to the budget of the current peacekeeping missions
- Aggregate number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people
- Ease of access to small arms and light weapons
- Military capability/sophistication
Updated: for 2011 (25th May 2011)
8 months ago
