CYPRUS has been ranked 51 out of 121 countries most at peace, higher than the US, Turkey and Israel and only slightly below the UK, according to an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The most peaceful country in the world, according to the EIU’s first-ever Global Peace Index, is Norway, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Japan and Finland.
Iraq came bottom of the list at 121, then Russia, Israel and Sudan just ahead. The US came close to the bottom at 96, just ahead Iran at 97. Turkey was rated in 92nd place, the UK at 49 and Greece at 44.
Fifteen of the top 20 most peaceful countries are in Europe.
The EIU measured countries’ peacefulness based on 24 indicators including ease of access to small weapons, military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.
After compiling the index, the researchers examined it for patterns in order to identify the “drivers” that make for peaceful societies.
They found that peaceful countries had high levels of democracy and transparency of government, education and standards of living.
And while the US possesses many of these characteristics, its ranking was brought down by its engagement in warfare and external conflict, as well as high levels of domestic incarceration and homicide.
The US’s rank also suffered due to the large share of military expenditure from its GDP, attributed to its status as one of the world’s military-diplomatic powers.
Assessors included the number of wars a country was involved in the past five years, how many soldiers were killed overseas and how much money was made in arms sales.
The domestic indicators included the level of violent crimes, relations with neighbouring countries and level of distrust in other citizens.
“The objective of the Global Peace Index was to go beyond a crude measure of wars by systemically exploring the texture of peace,” Global Peace Index President Clyde McConaghy told reporters in Washington.
“The index provides a quantitative measure of peacefulness that is comparable over time, and we hope it will inspire and influence world leaders and governments to further action.”
