Ireland has once again made the list of most peaceful countries in the world, while America failed to make the top 100.

According to the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) 2023, Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world followed by Denmark and Ireland.

Produced by the international think tank the Institute for Economics and Peace, the GPI is the leading measure of global peacefulness and ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their peacefulness levels.

The study measured a country’s level of negative peace using three domains of peacefulness:

  • Ongoing domestic and international conflict
  • Societal safety and security
  • Militarization

This year’s results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.42 percent. This is the thirteenth deterioration in peacefulness in the
last fifteen years, with 84 countries improving and 79 deteriorating in peacefulness in 2022. 

The war in Ukraine had a significant impact on global peacefulness, with Ukraine and Russia having the largest and fifth largest deteriorations in peacefulness respectively.

Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008, while Ireland remains in the third place spot from last year. Europe remains the most peaceful region in the world and is home to seven of the ten most peaceful countries. 

Out of the 163 countries listed, the United States came in at 131. According to the study, the United States recorded the fourth-largest overall increase in its homicide rate, which is "now above six per 100,000 people and more than six times higher than most Western European countries."

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Here are the top ten most peaceful countries around the globe:

  1. Iceland
  2. Denmark
  3. Ireland
  4. New Zealand
  5. Austria
  6. Singapore
  7. Portugal
  8. Slovenia
  9. Japan
  10. Switzerland

The Global Peace Index can be found here.