Most Peaceful Countries 2026: Global Peace Index Ranking

What the Global Peace Index measures

The GPI measures “negative peace”: the absence of violence or fear of violence. Six indicators assess ongoing domestic and international conflict, eleven cover societal safety and security, and six cover militarisation. Examples include conflict deaths, political instability, homicide, terrorism, displacement, access to weapons, military expenditure and weapons transfers.

The 2026 global average deteriorated by 0.7%, marking the 12th consecutive annual decline. IEP reports that 99 countries became less peaceful over the year and 62 improved. These movements describe the overall index, not only crime or battlefield conditions.

Countries differ because the index combines domestic security, exposure to internal and external conflict, relations with neighbouring states and military capacity. A country can have a comparatively low homicide rate yet rank lower because of conflict or militarisation; another can avoid war but lose points through political instability, violent demonstrations or displacement.

Top 10 countries in the Global Peace Index 2026

Iceland leads by a clear margin, followed by New Zealand and Switzerland. Seven of the Top 10 are European countries, while Singapore and Japan represent Asia and New Zealand represents Oceania.

Official IEP overall rank and GPI score

Lower scores indicate greater peacefulness. Rank movement compares the official 2026 position with the 2025 edition.

Methodology and data limits

Underlying inputs include UCDP conflict datasets, Gallup, UNHCR, IDMC, Economist Intelligence Unit assessments, ACLED, UNODC, SIPRI, IISS, World Prison Brief and United Nations data. Source reference periods vary by indicator. “GPI 2026” identifies the edition, not a claim that every input was collected in calendar year 2026.

Rounding and official ranks: the public poster publishes overall scores to three decimal places while preserving IEP’s official rank order. Cambodia and Honduras both display 2.075, but the official source lists them at ranks 96 and 97. This page preserves those source ranks and does not invent additional decimal precision. Jamaica and Serbia share rank 70, while Haiti and Nigeria share rank 142.

Missing values and conflicts: all 163 published rows are included. Values were not averaged, projected or replaced. When three-decimal display precision cannot independently reproduce a unique ordering, the published IEP source rank is retained. Score sorting uses the published value and preserves official source order as the tie-break.

What the metric does not measure: the GPI is not a personal travel-safety guarantee, a crime-only index, a democracy ranking or a forecast. Small score differences should not be interpreted as precise real-world differences in individual risk.

Full Global Peace Index 2026 ranking

Search the 163-entry official table, filter by rank movement or status, change the sort order, or expand the default Top 20 view. Rank remains the official IEP source rank. Score sorting uses the published three-decimal value and preserves official source order when displayed scores are equal.

Showing 20 of 163 entries.

Official 2026 GPI rank, published score and rank movement from 2025

All rows remain in the HTML and are fully visible when JavaScript is disabled. With JavaScript enabled, the initial view is limited to the Top 20 for a shorter mobile page.

What stands out in the 2026 ranking

How to interpret a country’s GPI position

A higher rank means the country performed better on the complete GPI framework, not that every place or every resident faces the same conditions. National scores combine different dimensions, and local security can vary widely within one country.

Official rank movement is relative. Moving up can reflect a country’s own improvement, deterioration elsewhere or both. Likewise, a small difference between two rounded scores may not be substantively meaningful, especially where the source publishes only three decimal places.

The index is most useful for broad cross-country comparison, regional analysis and long-term tracking under a consistent framework. Crime rates, conflict maps, human-rights evidence and current government travel advice remain necessary for narrower decisions.

FAQ

Sources