The Global Peace Index (GPI) gauges national peacefulness and last year's report indicated that the world became less peaceful as 111 countries have worsened since 2008, while only 51 nations have improved.
According to MSN, Iceland topped the list of the world's most peaceful countries based on the list in GPI because of two things: No standing army and a good welfare system providing health and education to each of its people.
Denmark ranked second in the GPI list. Passion.pk reported that Danish people are "really friendly and their focus has always remained on the economy and they prefer economic matters rather than in conflicts especially in armed conflicts." It can be recalled that during WWII, the citizens chose to confront their occupiers through diplomatic means.
Austria's significant "reduction in weapons import" and overall GPI rating made it third.
At rank 4 is Asia-Pacific's New Zealand. It is one of the six countries with the "lowest possible ongoing conflict score." Mostly remained detached to external conflicts, Switzerland placed fifth.
According to passion.pk, "the Swiss people are considered as the romantic nation in the world and of course are very friendly and hospitable. Due to its stable and open political structure the country has to face very less political instability. As far as its crime rates are concerned then these figures are very less as compared to the rest of the countries."
Finland is at sixth place. According to MSN, Finland still imposes "compulsory enlistment for males." But the country's military involvement is limited to UN peacekeeping missions.
Canada enjoys a "high level of safety, high standard of living and high life expectancy" making it land in 7th place. The world's second largest ountry is currently not involved in any conflict.
Japan is at eighth place followed by Belgium at ninth and Norway at tenth place.
According to economicsandpeace.org, the GPI is "composed of 22 indicators ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the percentage of prison population."
