SINGAPORE: In the 19th edition of the Global Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, Singapore was ranked the sixth most peaceful country in the world.
The index, which covers 99.7% of the population around the world, evaluates the level of peacefulness of 163 independent states and territories, based on these criteria: level of societal safety and security, extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict, and degree of militarisation.
Iceland, which has held the number one spot since 2008, topped the list yet again with a score of 1.095. Interestingly, Iceland is the only member country of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) alliance without a military.
Ireland, which has played an important role in global peacemaking, took second place on the index with a score of 1.260, closely followed by New Zealand, which scored 1.282. New Zealand, the only Pacific nation in the top 10, not only climbed one spot to take third place, but its peacefulness score also rose by 3.1% over the last year.
Rounding out the top five are Austria and Switzerland, with both receiving a score of 1.294. While Austria fell by one spot on the index, Switzerland conversely rose by one notch.
Singapore, now sixth with this year’s score of 1.357, dropped one place from fifth last year. Regionally, it follows New Zealand to take second place in the Pacific, and is the only Asian country in the top ten.
Notably, the city-state “is another popular destination for American expats, including those looking for entrepreneur economies like that of Silicon Valley”, as Insider recently pointed out, adding that Singapore is in the top five when it comes to societal safety and security, as well as ongoing conflicts.
Countries in Europe dominate the rest of the top ten with Portugal in seventh place (1.371), followed by Denmark (1.393), Slovenia (1.409), and Finland (1.420).
This should come as no surprise, given that Western and Central Europe is the most peaceful region in the world. On the other hand, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is still the least peaceful.
“This year’s results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.36%. This is the 13th deterioration in peacefulness in the last 17 years, with 74 countries improving and 87 deteriorating in peacefulness,” the index notes.
For the first time, Russia has become the least peaceful country in the world on this year’s Global Peace Index. Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Israel, and Mali, respectively, took the other nine spots among the bottom 10 least peaceful countries. /TISG
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