New Zealand has been ranked the second most peaceful country in the Global Peace Index 2022 report, a place it has held since 2017.
The annual report, compiled by the Institute for Economics & Peace, measures the “peacefulness” of countries using 23 indicators across the domains of societal safety and security, ongoing domestic and international conflict, and militarisation.
The report notes that over the past fourteen years, worldwide peacefulness has fallen, with the average country score deteriorating by 3.2 per cent.
However, there were substantial global improvements in the annual scores for a number of indicators, including terrorism impact, nuclear and heavy weapons, deaths from internal conflict, military expenditure, and incarceration. Terrorism impact is now at its lowest level since the inception of the GPI in 2008.
According to the report, the ten most peaceful countries (1 = most peaceful) for 2022 are:
- Iceland
- New Zealand
- Ireland
- Denmark
- Austria
- Portugal
- Slovenia
- Czech Republic
- Singapore
- Japan
