Doha, Qatar: Qatar has been ranked the second most peaceful country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and 29th in a ranking of 163 countries, covering 99.7 percent of the world’s population in the 18th edition of Global Peace Index (GPI) 2024 by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP).

Kuwait ranks first in the MENA region with a 1.622 score and comes 25th in the global ranking. Qatar has a score of 1.656 and is ahead of Oman (1.761), United Arab Emirates (1.897), Bahrain (2.072) and Saudi Arabia (2.206) in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. They have been ranked 53rd, 81st and 102nd on the index respectively.

The GPI uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators which measure the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.

Iceland, Ireland, Austria, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia and Malaysia are the top ten most peaceful countries on the index this year. Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. In the top ten, eight countries are from Europe and two from Asia.

”Europe is the most peaceful region in the world and is home to eight of the ten most peaceful countries. It has been the most peaceful region every year since the start of the GPI. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remained the world’s least peaceful region,” the report said.

“This year’s results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.56 percent. This is the 12th deterioration in peacefulness in the last 16 years, with 65 countries improving and 97 deteriorating in peacefulness.

“This is the highest number of countries to deteriorate in peacefulness in a single year since the inception of the index in 2008,” the GPI said.

“The conflict in Gaza and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine were the primary drivers of the fall in peacefulness,” it added.

Yemen is the least peaceful country in the world in the 2024 the GPI, followed by Sudan, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. This is the first year that Yemen has been ranked as the least peaceful country in the world, with the country having fallen 24 places in the rankings since the inception of the index.

“The conflict in Gaza has had a very strong impact on global peacefulness, with Israel and Palestine having the first and fourth largest deteriorations in peacefulness respectively. Ecuador, Gabon, and Haiti were the other countries with the largest deteriorations in peacefulness,” the report said.

North America recorded the largest regional deterioration in peacefulness, with both Canada and the US recording large falls in peacefulness. This deterioration was driven by increases in violent crime and perceptions of criminality.

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