India Tomorrow
New Delhi, June 13— In the Global Peace Index 2019, India has slipped four places to 141 in the list of 163 countries. Last year, it was on 137th rank. Peacefulness has deteriorated in the country, according to the report released by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) on Wednesday, even though global peacefulness has improved for the first time in five years. However, the world remains less peaceful than a decade ago, says the Sydney-based organization which has been issuing the peace index since 2008.
Iceland remains the most peaceful country since 2008.
“South Asia’s score for every indicator in Ongoing Conflict is less peaceful than the global average, with four out of six deteriorating last year. Only deaths from internal conflict improved, with fewer fatalities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India than the year prior. However, the number and duration of internal conflicts fought worsened in Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The score for internal conflicts fought had the highest rating at five in both India and Pakistan,” says the report.
China, Bangladesh, and India, score in the bottom half of the GPI and have significant exposure to climate hazards, with 393 million people in high climate hazard areas, the report observed.
At 153, Pakistan has poorer ranking than India but it has slipped two places while India four places.
“The results this year show that the average level of global peacefulness improved very slightly in the 2019 GPI. This is the first time the index has improved in five years. The average country score improved by 0.09 per cent, with 86 countries improving, and 76 recording deteriorations. The 2019 GPI reveals a world in which the conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade have begun to abate, but new tensions within and between nations have emerged,” says the report.
According to the report, Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. It is joined at the top of the index by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, and Denmark. Bhutan has recorded the largest improvement of any country in the top 20, rising 43 places in the last 12 years.
“Afghanistan is now the least peaceful country in the world, replacing Syria, which is now the second least peaceful. South Sudan, Yemen, and Iraq comprise the remaining five least peaceful countries. This is the first year since the inception of the index that Yemen has been ranked amongst the five least peaceful countries,” says the report.
The trend in peacefulness since 2008 shows that global peacefulness has deteriorated by 3.78 per cent, with 81 GPI countries recording a deterioration, and 81 improving, highlighting that deteriorations in peacefulness are generally larger than improvements. The index has deteriorated for eight of the last twelve years, with the last improvement in peacefulness before 2019 occurring in 2014. Seventeen of the 23 GPI indicators are less peaceful on average in 2019 when compared to 2008.
This is the 13th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.
“Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness. This report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on peace, its economic value, trends, and how to develop peaceful societies. The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation,” says the report.
IEP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human wellbeing and progress, the institute describes itself.
