Doha: Qatar has once again emerged as one of the most peaceful countries in the world and in the GCC region.
It has ranked 22nd in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2014 — released yesterday — that ranks nations based on the level of peace.
Among GCC countries, Kuwait is ranked 37th, the UAE 40th, Oman 59th, Saudi Arabia 80th and Bahrain 111th.
In the eighth edition of GPI, Syria emerged as the world’s least peaceful country (162th) and Iceland topped the index, becoming the most peaceful in the world.
The index is released every year by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank.
It gauges global peace using three broad themes — level of safety and security in society, extent of domestic or international conflict and degree of militarisation.
However, Qatar has slipped five places compared to 17th last year.
The UAE, Oman and Bahrain have also seen decline in their performances while Saudi Arabia improved its ranking, from 95th in 2013 to 80th in 2014.
The UAE slipped from 35 to 40, Oman from 48 to 59 and Bahrain from 111 to 100. Kuwait maintained status quo in its rating at 37.
Countries ranked 1st to 28th are categorised as ‘very high state of peace’ in the report.
The most peaceful region continues to be Europe and the least peaceful is South Asia.
Afghanistan has been replaced at the bottom of the index by Syria due to a slight improvement in its peace and further deterioration of the situation in Syria.
Globally, terrorist activity, the number of conflicts fought, and the number of refugees and displaced people were key contributors to the continuing deterioration in worldwide peace.
The economic impact of containing and dealing with consequences of Qatar’s levels of violence was estimated to cost the national economy $6.1bn in 2013 or 3.1 percent of its GDP, or $2,995 per person, said the report.
Globally, the economic impact of containing and dealing with consequences of violence in 2013 amounted to $9.8trn or 11.3 percent of global GDP.
The index comprises 22 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources and ranks 162 independent states, covering 99.6 percent of the world’s population.
The Peninsula
