YEREVAN (Armradio) — Armenia is placed110th (down from 91st last year) among 162 countries in the 2016 Global Peace Index released by the Institute for Economics and Peace today.
The world has become increasingly violent with deaths from conflict at a 25-year high, terrorist attacks at an all-time high and more people displaced than at any time since World War Two, the 2016 Global Peace Index showed on Wednesday.
The annual index, which measures 23 indicators including incidents of violent crime, countries’ levels of militarization and weapons imports, said intensifying conflicts in the Middle East were mostly to blame.
But beyond the Middle East, the world was actually becoming more peaceful, researchers behind the index said.
Armenia’s neighbors in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia – 85th, Azerbaijan 134th, Turkey -145th, Iran – 133rd. Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Belarus are placed 151st and 106th respectively, Kazakhstan is 75th, Kyrgyzstan is 124th.
Iceland is the world’s most peaceful country listed in the index, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal.
The least peaceful country is Syria, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.