World Map of Peace
Global Peace Index
Every year the Global Peace Index ranks 163 states by how peaceful they are. If you want to read the ranking, it helps to know how it is calculated
Key points at a glance
- Every year the Global Peace Index compares 163 states and territories, home to 99.7 percent of the world’s population.
- It combines 23 indicators in three domains: ongoing conflict, safety and security, and militarisation.
- Every country receives a score between 1 and 5. A lower score means more peace.
- It is published by the Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney. The 2026 edition is the twentieth.
In numbers
23
indicators
each brought onto a scale of 1 to 5
3
domains
safety and security, ongoing conflict, militarisation
60:40
weighting
internal peace counts more than external peace
Ongoing conflict
- Indicators
- 6
- Asks about
- number, duration and intensity of conflicts and their deaths
- Best score 2026
- 1.101: Iceland, Mauritius, Uruguay
- Iceland
- 1.101
- Germany
- 1.267
Safety and security
- Indicators
- 11
- Asks about
- crime, demonstrations, terrorism and political stability
- Best score 2026
- 1.243: Norway
- Iceland
- 1.288
- Germany
- 1.739
Militarisation
- Indicators
- 6
- Asks about
- military spending, arms trade, troop numbers and peacekeeping
- Best score 2026
- 1.027: Iceland
- Iceland
- 1.027
- Germany
- 2.083
- Internal peace, 14 indicators60%
- External peace, 9 indicators40%
- Publisher
- Institute for Economics and Peace, Sydney
- First edition
- 2008, indicators chosen in 2007 by an expert panel
- Scope
- 163 states and territories, 99.7 percent of the world population
- Scale
- 1 to 5, a low score means more peace
What does the Global Peace Index measure?
Every year the Global Peace Index compares how peaceful states are. The 2026 edition is the twentieth and covers 163 states and territories in which 99.7 percent of the world population live. Each country receives a score between 1 and 5, where a low score means more peace.
What it measures is what peace research calls negative peace: the absence of violence or the fear of violence. The index therefore asks how much violence there is in a country, whether it is involved in conflicts and how heavily it has armed itself. How just a society is or how well its institutions work is not something it measures.
The distinction goes back to the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung, who in 1969 distinguished between the mere absence of violence and a peace that also overcomes injustice. For this broader concept the institute has a measuring instrument of its own, the Positive Peace Index.
Who is behind the index?
The publisher is the Institute for Economics and Peace, an international think tank based in Sydney with offices in New York, The Hague and Nairobi, among other places. It was founded by the Australian technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Killelea, who also created the index.
The choice of measures and their weighting was set in 2007 by an international panel of independent experts. This panel accompanies every edition. It is currently chaired by Kevin P. Clements, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand.
The data itself comes from many sources, including the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United Nations and surveys by Gallup. Qualitative assessments, for example of political instability, are provided by experts at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Which domains make up the score?
The index combines 23 measures in three domains. The first domain is called ongoing conflict and comprises six measures: how many internal and external conflicts a country is engaged in, for how long and how intensely, and how many people die in them.
The second and largest domain describes internal safety and security with eleven measures. These include homicides, violent crime, violent demonstrations, terrorism, political instability, the number of refugees and relations with neighbouring states. The assumption behind it: a country with little crime and stable politics is more peaceful.
The third domain is called militarisation and has six measures. It covers military spending relative to economic output, the number of soldiers per inhabitant, weapons imports and weapons exports, heavy weapons and nuclear weapons, and contributions to peacekeeping missions of the United Nations.
How do 23 figures become one score?
First, each measure is brought onto a scale of 1 to 5. Figures such as the homicide rate are converted for this, and assessments such as political instability are divided into five levels. This allows very different kinds of information to be combined.
Then each measure is given a weight between 1 and 5. The heaviest are the intensity of internal conflict, deaths from conflict and relations with neighbouring states; the lightest include weapons imports and military spending. The weighted values produce two sub-scores: one for internal peace, one for external peace.
In the overall score, internal peace counts for 60 percent and external peace for 40 percent. The panel agreed on this because, in its assessment, a high level of internal peace goes hand in hand with fewer conflicts abroad. The weights are reviewed before every edition.
How does Germany perform?
In the 2026 edition Germany ranks 28th with a score of 1.657 and has thus lost five places. Its score has worsened by 4.1 percent, above all in the domain of internal safety and security, where political terror, violent demonstrations and violent crime were rated worse.
In the domain of militarisation the score worsened by four percent, and the measure of weapons imports alone by 21.4 percent. In addition, Germany's military spending now exceeds two percent of economic output. This example shows how the index works: it does not judge whether spending is sensible, but counts it as part of militarisation.
For context it is worth looking at the neighbours: Switzerland ranks 3rd, Austria 6th, Czechia 13th and the Netherlands 17th. You can find the full ranking with the first 28 places on the page about the safest countries in the world.
Where are the limits of the index?
Every composite index depends on decisions that could also be made differently, above all the weighting. The institute has tested this itself: if you run the index through a very large number of other weightings, around 70 percent of the comparisons between two countries stay the same. The order is therefore fairly stable, but not independent of the method.
Then there is the data situation. For some countries good statistics are available, for others only estimates, and some of the measures are based on expert assessments. In addition, small differences in score can trigger big jumps in the ranking when many countries are close together.
The most important limit concerns content: the index measures negative peace. It does not describe whether people in a country can speak their minds freely, whether resources are distributed fairly or whether institutions enjoy trust. For that, the institute points to the Positive Peace Index, which asks about eight pillars, including a well-functioning government, the free flow of information and good relations with neighbours.
Global Peace Index 2026, annex on the indicators, translated
The Global Peace Index is composed of 23 indicators of the absence of violence or the fear of violence.
Sources
- Institute for Economics and Peace: Global Peace Index 2026 (PDF)
- Vision of Humanity: map of the Global Peace Index
- Johan Galtung: Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 1969
- Vision of Humanity: Understanding Peace, Beyond Absence of Conflict
- German Federal Foreign Office: travel and safety advice
The 23 indicators and their weight
| Indicator | Part | Weight (1 to 5) |
|---|---|---|
| Intensity of internal conflict | internal peace | 5 |
| Deaths from internal conflict | internal peace | 5 |
| Homicides per 100,000 people | internal peace | 4 |
| Violent crime | internal peace | 4 |
| Political instability | internal peace | 4 |
| Political terror | internal peace | 4 |
| Perceived criminality | internal peace | 3 |
| Security officers and police per head | internal peace | 3 |
| Incarceration rate | internal peace | 3 |
| Access to small arms | internal peace | 3 |
| Violent demonstrations | internal peace | 3 |
| Internal conflicts | internal peace | 2.56 |
| Weapons imports | internal peace | 2 |
| Impact of terrorism | internal peace | 2 |
| Relations with neighbouring states | external peace | 5 |
| Deaths from external conflict | external peace | 5 |
| Refugees and internally displaced people | external peace | 4 |
| Nuclear and heavy weapons | external peace | 3 |
| Weapons exports | external peace | 3 |
| External conflicts | external peace | 2.28 |
| Military spending as a percentage of economic output | external peace | 2 |
| Armed services personnel per head | external peace | 2 |
| Contributions to UN peacekeeping missions | external peace | 2 |
Source: Global Peace Index 2026, Table A.1. The weights apply within each part; internal peace enters the overall score at 60 percent, external peace at 40 percent.
More in this series
- The safest countries in the worldGlobal Peace Index 2026Iceland has led the ranking of the most peaceful countries for nineteen years. Who follows behind it and why is shown by the Global Peace Index 2026
- Countries without an armyConstitutions, treaties and Barbey 2020Around twenty states in the world have no army of their own. Some abolished it, others never founded one, and each arranges its security in its own way
More questions about the Global Peace Index
When is the Global Peace Index published?
The Global Peace Index is published once a year, in June. The first edition appeared in 2008, and the 2026 edition is the twentieth. The report compares the scores with the previous year and with 2008, so a country’s development can be followed over many years.
Alongside the report as a PDF, the institute publishes an interactive world map with the countries’ scores on its Vision of Humanity website. The figures on this page come from the report itself, which documents the method, the weights and the countries’ domain scores.
What is new in the Global Peace Index 2026 compared with 2025?
Compared with the 2025 edition, 99 states deteriorated and 62 improved. Of the 23 indicators, 14 worsened, eight improved and one remained unchanged. Iceland stays at the top, and New Zealand has moved up to second place.
The largest improvement was recorded by Poland, which rose 23 places to 22nd. Among the indicators, UN peacekeeping funding improved the most, and total deaths from terrorism fell to their lowest level since 2008. The largest deterioration was in deaths from internal conflict.
Which period does the 2026 edition cover?
Most indicators in the 2026 edition end in December 2025. The report therefore appears a good six months after the period it describes. Events from 2026 are only partly included, as the report itself points out.
For you this means: the ranking shows the state of a completed year, not the current situation. If you want to know what is happening in a country right now, you need current sources, such as the travel and safety advice of the German Federal Foreign Office. The index is designed to make longer developments visible.
Which indicators have changed the most?
Since the first edition in 2008, three indicators have deteriorated particularly sharply: violent demonstrations by 68.3 percent, external conflicts fought by 63.5 percent and internal conflicts fought by 44.7 percent. In total, 17 of the 23 indicators have worsened and six have improved.
By domain, Ongoing Conflict has deteriorated by 18.5 percent since 2008 and Safety and Security by 3.2 percent. Militarisation has improved by 1.3 percent on average. This trend, however, has reversed sharply since 2022, above all in Western and Central Europe.
Which countries led the Global Peace Index 2025?
Iceland was in first place in the 2025 edition as well. It was followed by Switzerland, New Zealand, Ireland, Austria and Slovenia. This follows from the changes on the previous year that the 2026 report gives for every country. Germany ranked 23rd in 2025 and has since dropped five places.
The comparison shows how close together the top places are. Between 2025 and 2026, Switzerland and New Zealand swapped places, and Slovenia rose from sixth to fourth. Larger jumps occur further down: Poland was still 45th in 2025 and is 22nd in 2026.
Peace does not begin in a ranking
Behind every position are people who settle disputes, connect neighbourhoods and build trust. That is exactly where W3ltfrieden starts: with peace missions that you can start or support yourself.
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