Friday, June 13, 2014

Peaceful Countries

The Global Peace Index (GPI) ranks nations according to their level of peace based on 22 qualitative and quantitative indicators, such as level of safety and the extent of conflict. Europe is the most peaceful region, with small stable democracies, including Nordic countries, ranked very high. Norway ranks #11 out of 162 countries. Here's a look at the world's most peaceful countries according to the 2013 Global Peace Index.

#1 Iceland
#2 Denmark
#3 New Zealand
#4 Austria
#5 Switzerland
#6 Japan
#7 Finland
#8 Canada
#9 Sweden
#10 Belgium
#11 Norway
#12 Ireland
#13 Slovenia
#14 Czech Republic
#15 Germany

Learn more about the study and search for specific statistics by country at Vision of Humanity.

Anya Britzius is editor of Viking magazine. She lives in Minneapolis, Minn., and enjoys baking, reading and keeping up on modern Norwegian trends.

1 comment:

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

I'll have to dissent where Norway is concerned, and I'll surely draw fire for it. While diplomatically the country has a strong track record where peace and the promotion of peace on the world's stage is concerned, I was struck by the amount of nasty small-time violence and petty crime within the country when I lived there. Such news items were (and remain) a part of virtually every TV and radio newscast as well as in most newspapers each day. Stabbings, rapes, robberies, and kidnappings (among other unsavory things) by Norwegians against Norwegians, are a daily occurrence. Norway seems to be a very violent country at the micro level. Norway is a great place, but let's neither idealize the country too much, nor be too smug about it.