George Philipas/Reuters
- The Institute for Economics and Peace released its Global Peace Index on Wednesday.
- Each country’s score is based on a number of factors, including political instability and deaths from conflict.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace released its 2019 Global Peace Index this month.
The IEP, a think tank that develops methods to "analyse peace and to quantify its economic value," has released the GPI annually since 2007. A panel of experts oversees the GPI, and Economist Intelligence Unit analysts score each country on qualitative factors.
The report measures the peacefulness of 162 countries by rating each one on 23 qualitative and quantitative metrics, which are divided into three categories.
The ongoing domestic and international conflict category includes deaths from organized conflict and relations with neighboring countries. The societal safety and security category includes political instability, violent crime, and the incarcerated population. The militarization category includes access to weapons and weapons imports and exports.
In 2019, overall global peacefulness increased for the first time in five years, but the world is still less peaceful than it was 10 years ago, the report says. This year, Afghanistan replaced Syria as the least peaceful country in the world.
Russia makes the top 10 list of least peaceful countries.
Stringer/REUTERS
Russia has one of the highest per-capita rates of weapons exports, according to the report, and is highly militarized, which partially explains its rank on this list.
Its engagement in the Syrian conflict increased the country’s number of deaths from external conflict, and overall approval of its leadership declined from 35% to just over 30% from 2008 to 2018.
It is the least peaceful country in its region, according to the report.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is at high risk for severe flooding, contributing to the likelihood of future conflict.
Goran Tomasevic/REUTERS
Violence in the DRC is interfering with health workers’ ability to treat the country’s most recent Ebola outbreak, which has claimed 1,396 lives in that country, according to the World Health Organization.
Gangs and militia groups attack healthcare facilities, killing a Cameroonian doctor working to control the outbreak earlier this year.
Rising violence in Libya, coupled with its high risk for flooding, make it the eighth least peaceful country in the world.
Goran Tomasevic/REUTERS
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- Russia blames a US warship for a near collision, but a naval expert is poking holes in its story
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Source: Business Insider – eioanes@businessinsider.com (Ellen Ioanes)