Global Peace Index: Bangladesh jumps six notches to 96th

Bangladesh went up six spots to become the 96th peaceful country on the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2022 released by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace.

The 16th edition of the index released on Wednesday placed Bangladesh in the medium section in terms of peace.

The country improved its position globally, but its position dropped among the South Asian countries.

Bangladesh is now the fourth most peaceful country in South Asia ahead of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

The report highlighted that South Asia recorded the largest improvement in peacefulness among all the regions over the past year. However, it remained the second least peaceful region overall.

Bhutan remains the most peaceful country in South Asia and is ranked 19th globally. It is the highest-ranked country on the GPI outside of Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America.

This year, Sri Lanka has replaced Bangladesh.

Conflict in Sri Lanka occurred after the cut-off date for the production of the GPI figures. Before that, Sri Lanka (90th) had experienced a 3.6% improvement in its overall score.

The rankings of Nepal (73), India (135th), and Pakistan (147th) remained the same in South Asia. 

Bangladesh scored 2.067 on the 2022 index on a scale of 1-5, while it scored 2.068 last year. The lower the score, the more peaceful the country is.

The edition measured 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

The report covered 99.7% of the world's population and used 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources to compile the index. These indicators were grouped into three key domains: Ongoing Conflict, Safety and Security, and Militarisation.

Militarisation was the only domain that experienced an improvement worldwide compared to 2008. The other two domains deteriorated according to the index.

Global peace declined to the lowest level in 15 years fuelled by post-Covid economic uncertainty and the Ukraine conflict.

This year Iceland again ranked as the world's most peaceful country, a position it has been holding since 2008. It is followed by New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, and Austria.

For the fifth consecutive year, Afghanistan is the least peaceful country, followed by Yemen, Syria, Russia, and South Sudan.