LONDON, May 20: Iceland is the world’s most peaceful country followed by two Scandinavian neighbours along with New Zealand and Japan, while Iraq is the most violent, an annual study said on Tuesday.

Countries in the bottom five also include Afghanistan, Somalia, and Israel, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI), which welcomed a slight improvement overall in peacefulness.

“The world appears to be a marginally more peaceful place this year. This is encouraging, but it takes small steps by individual countries for the world to make greater strides on the road to peace,” said GPI founder Steve Killelea.

The index was launched last year, and this year lists 140 countries in terms of a variety of factors reflecting both domestic peacefulness and their international relations.

Specifically, its authors take into account 24 indicators, ranging from levels of violent crime to UN deployments overseas, and from political instability for risk of terrorist attacks.

On these grounds Iceland rates the best, followed by Denmark, Norway and New Zealand, while Japan is the highest member of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialised nations in the rankings.

Other countries which have made notable progress since last year, albeit from a lower ranking, include Indonesia in 68th position, India in 107th, and Angola in 110th place.

At the bottom of the heap is Iraq in 140th position, still in turmoil more than five years after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Somalia is in 139th, followed by Sudan, Afghanistan, and Israel in 136th place, one above Chad.

The authors say their rankings are of great practical use for businesses and investors.

“You ultimately can’t have business where you have conflict,” said Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“So, it is in the nature of self-interest to promote the kind of circumstances and the kind of environment where you can carry out your business when there is peace,” he added.

The top 10 The bottom 10

1 Iceland 131 Russia

2 Denmark 132 Lebanon

3 Norway 133 North Korea

4 New Zealand 134 Central

African

Republic

5 Japan 135 Chad

6 Ireland 136 Israel

7 Portugal 137 Afghanistan

8 Finland 138 Sudan

9 Luxembourg 139 Somalia

10 Austria 140 Iraq

—AFP