Gun control advocates love to suggest the United States is the world's most violent country. The reality differs greatly from the rhetoric. In fact, many of the world's most dangerous countries don't even have gun rights.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) is a ranking of the world's countries from most dangerous to least dangerous, as compiled by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). To get the GPI, the IEP measures using three themes: the level of safety/security in a society, the extent of domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarization.
The GPI was recently updated and the world's level of peace has deteriorated by 0.27% over the past year.
The 12th edition of the report ranks 163 independent states based on how peaceful they are (or dangerous).
The 163 states cover 99.7% of the Earth's population and are assessed using 23 indicators.
Not surprisingly, America isn't in the top 10 (or even the top 40, we're #43, to be exact). However, we're not without our problems - the US borders one of the most dangerous countries on Earth (no, not Canada) and there's a price to pay for our large population, geographic size, huge coastlines and individual freedoms (although most reasonable people would argue the US would be more dangerous without our gun rights).
For the past 10 years Europe has remained the most peaceful continent on Earth while Russia, Central Africa and the Mideast are plagued with issues. The most peaceful country on Earth? Iceland! The least peaceful? Syria, followed by Afghanistan.
Here's the top 20 most violent places on Earth:
- #1 Syria
- #2 Afghanistan
- #3 South Sudan
- #4 Iraq
- #5 Somalia
- #6 Yemen
- #7 Libya
- #8 Democratic Republic of the Congo
- #9 Central African Republic
- #10 Russia
- #11 Sudan
- #12 Ukraine
- #13 Pakistan
- #14 North Korea
- #15 Turkey
- #16 Nigeria
- #17 Lebanon
- #18 Israel
- #19 Colombia
- #20 Mali
- #21 Venezuela
- #22 Egypt
- #23 Palestine
- #24 Mexico
- #25 Ethiopia
- #26 Eritrea
- #27 Philippines
- #28 India
- #29 Chad
- #30 Burundi
- #31 Cameroon
- #32 Azerbaijan
- #33 Iran
- #34 Bahrain
- #35 Saudi Arabia
- #36 Niger
- #37 Mauritania
- #38 Republic of the Congo
- #39 South Africa
- #40 Zimbabwe
An interesting point to note about Mexico’s ranking: 10 years ago they were much lower on the list (#69), but now they’ve been bumped up to #24. What changed? Well, Obama’s immigration policies likely had something to do with it. If you consider that Obama wanted the dregs of Latin American society to have free entry to the US, with the cartels being opportunistic businessmen and recognizing the large cash crop from importing contraband into the US, not to mention human trafficking. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Similarly, the government ruining the oil industry and endemic government corruption also played a role. There is very little legitimate economic activity that goes on in Mexico these days.
Since I still have your attention, here's the top 10 least dangerous countries on Earth, with Iceland being the safest.
- #154 Ireland
- #155 Japan
- #156 Singapore
- #157 Czech Republic
- #158 Canada
- #159 Denmark
- #160 Portugal
- #161 Austria
- #162 New Zealand
- #163 Iceland
Of course, a lot of this information is subject to bias - you have to assume the state reports on crime, terrorism and security are accurate and honest. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. China, for example, has a history of releasing misleading reports on their own nation's economy.
Also, consider the neighboring countries for each of the nations on the top 10 list. Ireland is an island, so are Japan and New Zealand - they don't have the immigration issues we have here in the US.
Similarly, the other countries on the list are all bordered by friendly nations, which means your neighboring country's GPI will very likely have an impact on your own nation's GPI.
At the end of the day, we can take this information with a grain of salt (unless you live in Iceland, because salt melts ice). While it's likely that most of the rankings on the list are pretty accurate, every piece of information presented in this report didn't originate from the same source. Some of the details came from honest individuals while others are subject to debate.
Even still, I wouldn't go planning a vacation to Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia anytime soon.
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