While the world faces the largest number of armed conflicts since World War II, five countries continue to stand out as refuges of stability, peace and order. According to the Global Peace Index of 2025 (GPI, in the acronym), prepared by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) and released in June, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria and Switzerland occupy the first positions in the ranking of the most peaceful nations on the planet.
Iceland’s leadership has been uninterrupted since 2008 – when the first index has been released, confirming the country as an internal security model, low crime and external neutrality. Ireland and New Zealand, also recurring among the first places, stand out for political stability and confidence in the institutions. Already Austria and Switzerland maintain the historical tradition of neutrality, consolidating itself as poles of peace amid the increase of global militarization.
According to the report, world peace recorded its sixth consecutive fall this year. The study points out that global pacification has worsened year after year since 2014, with 100 of the 163 countries evaluated in deterioration in the last decade, that is, most nations has become more violent or unstable between 2014 and 2024, reflecting the advance of crime, terrorism and militarization on a global scale. According to the report, in all, 59 active conflicts were accounted for until last year, resulting in 152,000 wars -related deaths – the highest number since the end of World War II.
The difference between the most peaceful and the least peaceful countries has grown too. The so -called “peace inequality” has increased by 11.7% over the past two decades, according to the document. While the 25 most peaceful countries registered a drop of only 0.5% in the indicators, the 25 less peaceful had a deterioration of 12.2%.
In the lowest part of the classification appear Russia, Ukraine, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen, all involved in internal or international wars that have intensified in recent years. In 2024 alone, 17 countries recorded more than 1,000 deaths in internal conflicts, the largest number since 1999. Russia, according to the report, is the world’s least peaceful country.
Brazil, under the leadership of Lula, appears in 130th position among 163 countries, remaining among the least peaceful nations in the world. Although it has registered a slight improvement compared to the previous year, the country still faces serious internal challenges, such as high crime rates and social instability, which puts it only as the most peaceful ninth among the 11 evaluated in South America.
In contrast, Argentina, ruled by Javier Milei, reached the best place in the region, taking 46th in the global ranking and recording an improvement of 3.8% on its level of peace. The Argentine advance was attributed to the containment of political instability risks, as the austerity measures implemented did not cause mass protests, as well as improvements in economic indicators that contributed to reinforce stability.
The economic impact of violence is also cited. The report estimates that the global cost of the absence of peace reached US $ 19.97 trillion by 2024, equivalent to 11.6% of all world economic activity. Most of this amount comes from military and internal security spending, while investments in peacekeeping represented less than 1% of this total.
This year’s GPI concludes that while some countries maintain islands of stability and pacification, the international order is at a point of inflection. Increasing militarization, geopolitical fragmentation and difficulty in achieving lasting agreements increase the risk of new climbing of violence in different regions of the world.
