World's Most Peaceful Countries: 2011 Global Peace Index (PHOTOS)

There are few bright spots in 2011's Global Peace Index, which reflects a more volatile planet in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Prepared by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an international research body, the report found that the world has become "slightly less peaceful" in the past year, with a massive surge in the potential for terrorist acts and likelihood of violent demonstrations for the third successive year.

Still, it wasn't all gloom and doom, with Iceland topping the list of the world's most peaceful countries, followed by New Zealand and Japan in second and third place, respectively. At 82, the U.S. fared considerably worse, but still came in well ahead of Russia at 147 and Somalia, which ranked dead last at 153.

As the Guardian is reporting, officials base their rankings of 153 nations on 23 different indicators, from a country's level of military expenditure to its level of respect for human rights.

View the full report here.

View a selection of countries and their 2011 Global Peace Index rankings below:

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Iceland - #1

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Comments

[kishorbhattyash]

02:04 PM on 06/17/2011

The U.S. is ranked under Cuba. All said and done, right there.

[wmerr58523]

10:12 AM on 06/17/2011

OMG, the left speaking their mind as to what the world is in their view. Can't wait unti the U.N. and obama get a hold of this. Hurry and buy your weapons to protect yourselves now...the left is laying the groundwork, and concerted effort to allow you to become subjects and not citizens.

[Fred in China]

05:23 AM on 06/06/2011

This is really inspiring! Maybe one day, when a hugely powerful country which has made some terribly non-peaceful decisions but is ultimately a responsible and positive preserver of global peace can provide our security while we sit back and watch, we will also climb to the top of this list.

[courtb]

07:39 PM on 05/31/2011

What happened to the other 40 countries that are not on the list?

[vivi fb]

04:21 PM on 05/31/2011

Why is Norway not on the list???? FAIL

[Tanrioldu]

08:53 PM on 05/31/2011

it is clearly not a country. duh. who has ever heard of this "Norway"?

[Faux]

01:58 PM on 05/31/2011

It's not really surprising the US would rank so low given how they measured:

1) Percent population imprisoned. It's a national embarrassment how many people we imprison.
2) Number of internal conflicts (0) and external conflicts (a bunch). But it turns out the world kind of expects America to play this role, so as much as I'd like it to not be true, I'm not ashamed of it.
3) Sophistication of the Military- yes, that's right. Because we aren't throwing sticks around, we get an atrocious score.
4) We export a huge amount of weapons. Yup. You could call that warlike, or you could call that industrious!
5) Well-armed populace. We lose points for that. Frankly I think the number of firearms per person is immaterial when you also have a statistic for violent crimes. Who cares if there are a lot of guns if violent deaths are low?
6) We have a high potential for terrorist activity (relatively). Yeah, we're a target.

Given those factors, there's really no way America could be anywhere near the top. I'm surprised it did as well as it did, honestly.

[wmerr58523]

10:16 AM on 06/17/2011

Illegals in jail make up a very large part of the prison population (waiting to be let out of jail in CA so hold on, you will make the organizations who write this garbage happy but the rest of us will suffer.
About the weapons...did you hear the one about "holder" (the clown at the DoJ) sending guns to mexico and then complaining that they were getting guns from the U.S.? It is an interesting read about this admiinistration and their underhanfded methods of taking our guns away.

[gurukalehuru]

01:53 PM on 05/31/2011

I'm surprised we're not lower. We spend way more than any other nation on our military, we're involved in conflicts around the world, we torture prisoners, we have crazy people with guns shooting up our schools and shopping malls on a pretty regular basis...
I trust The Guardian, so I'm not doubting the veracity of the report. Just surprised. There must be some really messed up countries out there.

[caneca]

07:42 AM on 05/31/2011

USA one of the most violent nations?
A country with more guns that people, and an overflowing prison population?

Shocking!!!

[hagagaga]

01:52 PM on 05/31/2011

Actually, there are less guns than people.

[wmerr58523]

10:18 AM on 06/17/2011

This is what happens when this so called president attacks the states for doing his job of protecting Americans from illegal's.

Get rid of the illegal's and you will reduce the prison population by around 46%.

Arm up America, the last battle of the American revolution is coming.

[Starvin-Marvin]

06:59 AM on 05/30/2011

Wow western europe is entirely green..how is that possible with all those damn socialists over there?
How does it feel to be ranked among the Serbia, Montenegro's of this world?
I always thought the USA had to be very peaceful, with all those 40year/lifelong/death sentences, anti-terror laws and real "not like european sissies"- policeofficers.

[ObliqueReference]

11:22 AM on 05/30/2011

Homogenous populations are spared a lot of the racial tension, class strife and desperation of hard-luck minorities resorting to crime to get by.

[Starvin-Marvin]

12:26 PM on 05/30/2011

hmm Amsterdam has a larger foreign population than 'indigenous' Dutch people. As so for ports/industrial cities in Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
Not even talking about the countries at the southern european borders who are filled with illegals from Africa and Asia.

[OliveColored]

11:51 AM on 05/31/2011

What a stu pid thing to say.

Canada is just as diverse as the US. Every country in Western Europe has a huge amount of immigrants. It's the same in Australia and even NZ has a lot of immigrants in its urban centers.

All these countries are just as, and in many instances more diverse then the US. But don't let that little fact interfere with your blatant rac ism.

[wmerr58523]

10:18 AM on 06/17/2011

They are subjects and not citizens.

[MsVella]

06:38 PM on 05/29/2011

OOh snap! Just checked on their website, Malta wasn't even included!! Wtf! SO unfair.

[MsVella]

06:30 PM on 05/29/2011

Okay Malta has to be ranked up there! We get like one or two murder a year! Sometimes none at all!

[dkeogh]

12:03 AM on 05/30/2011

LOL with a name like Vella - you could be nothing else but maltese :)

[MsVella]

10:56 AM on 05/30/2011

Hahaha yeah I have the most common surname in Malta!

[Tanrioldu]

08:56 PM on 05/31/2011

Your entire country's population is that of a small town in many countries around the world. You guys probably all know each other too, right? ;-)

[MsVella]

06:00 PM on 06/01/2011

Hahaha do not mock us :P The population is a little over 400,000 so its more than a little town! And yes most of us know each other :S

[GSR]

03:28 PM on 05/29/2011

New Zealand is the second most peaceful nation. Here's why:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo6fgZ-dbOw

[Via Dolorosa]

02:09 PM on 05/29/2011

Israel ranked 145, eight spots from the bottom of the list, ahead of Pakistan and just after the Central African Republic. Interesting!

[tallen]

09:10 PM on 05/29/2011

Not surprising at all.
The nation has been under attack by arabs for over 60 years.

[Via Dolorosa]

12:27 AM on 05/30/2011

The fact is Israel has been a militarized state and on the attack since before its creation in 1948; it's Israel that occupies other nations' lands and populations and not the other way around.

[Darcha]

02:28 PM on 05/30/2011

Hate much?

[colinmeister]

08:26 AM on 05/31/2011

Even Zimbabwe (140) ranked better than Israel.

[Pod-gers]

09:00 AM on 05/29/2011

Moderator, please post my main comment, it is not offensiveand i complies with the policies. refusing to post it violates the policy of this site.

thank you.

[wheelzroller]

12:06 PM on 05/29/2011

Huffington Post has not posted a few of my comments ! I feel that it is wrong to do so !
My comments are clean and pointed ! My question has become : " Whatever happened to Free Speech ??? "

[Asmodean1]

12:17 PM on 05/29/2011

If I remember the order correctly.... we were listed at #82... what was your question again? lol

peace be with you all.

[lohu]

08:55 AM on 05/29/2011

Iceland got their own issues with natural disasters and suic-ides.

[Tanrioldu]

08:57 PM on 05/31/2011

and deregulated banks that tanked the economy

[Kald]

02:04 PM on 06/06/2011

And awesome women...

[busteddrum]

01:38 PM on 06/16/2011

are you talking about Iceland or the US