The Global Peace Index that analyzes the state of peace in various countries has published a list that indicates that Iceland is the most peaceful country, while Syria is the least peaceful. The U.S. is no more amongst the top 100 peaceful countries to live in.
Visions of Humanity, the website that published the data, says that the report was published based on conflict and violence trends in a country, and the economic impact of the violence in a country.
"The economic impact of containing and dealing with the consequences of global violence last year was estimated to be US$9.8 trillion. This is equivalent to 11.3% of global GDP - twice the combined GDP of African countries," per Vision of Humanity report.
Per the report, our world has become four percent less peaceful when compared to 2008. However, Europe is still considered to be the most peaceful region of the world. The report highlights that 14 out of the top 20 countries are European.
The list suggests that small and stable democracies account for the top 10 most peaceful countries of the world. Iceland enjoys the position of the most peaceful country of the world followed by Denmark and Austria in the second and third positions. New Zealand (ranked 3), Japan (ranked 6) and Canada (ranked 8) are the only countries in the top 10 list that are not in the Europe.
The Vision of Humanity report indicates that the least peaceful countries are from South Asia. The findings of the reports suggests that 2013 witnessed tensions in Ukraine, conflicts in Syria, civil war in South Sudan and intensified terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Philippines and Libya. These activities contributed to making the world less safe than previous years.
Afghanistan appeared at the bottom of the list in 2013 but in the 2014 report Syria has taken the last spot. South Sudan experienced the largest decline in ranking from 145 in 2013 to 160 in 2014.
The ranking of U.S. slipped down from 97 in 2013 to 101 in 2014. The report suggests that factors such as lack of gun control, ownership of nuclear weapons, involvement in a few military clashes, low ratio of women in political office and terrorism such as the Boston Bombing of April 2013 affected the country's rank in 2014.
The Boston Bombing incident of April 2013 is considered one of the major incidents that affected the global peace ranking of the country. The attack was responsible for the death of three people and injured many.
The report has also issued a list of 10 countries where peace is believed to deteriorate in the next two years. These countries are Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Chad, Georgia, Haiti, Liberia, Nepal, Qatar and Zambia.
