19 June 2014
Yesterday, on Waterloo Day European time, the 2014 Global Peace Index was released by the Vision of Humanity.
The overall assessment suggests that the world is continuing an eight year trend of becoming less peaceful. This reflects terrorist activity and the number of active conflicts. The economic impact of containing violence is estimated to be about US$10 trillion (or close to 12% of global GDP ).
While 51 countries have improved, 111 countries are less peaceful. Syria has taken over from Afghanistan as the least peaceful country although, together with South Sudan, remains awful. Georgia stands out as making the greatest advances in peacefulness.
New Zealand has slipped from third place, a rank since taken by Austria (after Iceland and Denmark) while New Zealand, now fourth, is followed by Switzerland and Finland. Canada is improving, but Japan is slipping several places (now 8th) as is the United Kingdom ( to 44th), and the United States (to 101st). Australia is in 15th place.
The GPI ranks states according to 22 qualitative and quantitative indicators of peace. The index measures levels of internal and external conflict, safety of citizens, and levels of militarisation.
Global Peace Index 2014
2014 (2013)
1 1 Iceland
2 2 Denmark
3 4 Austria
4 3 New Zealand
5 5 Switzerland
6 7 Finland
7 8 Canada
8 6 Japan
9 10 Belgium
10 11 Norway
11 9 Sweden
15 16 Australia
47 44 United Kingdom
101 99 United States
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/our-gpi-findingsGood government
Integrity Talking Points 