Last Updated on February 24, 2021 by Karl Thompson
The Global Peace Index uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure the state of peace using three thematic domains:
- the level of Societal Safety and Security;
- the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict;
- the degree of Militarisation.
The data is collated by the Institute for Economics and Peace – a think tank which develops metrics to analyse peace and to quantify its economic value. It does this by developing global and national indices of ‘peacefulness’, analysing country level risk, and calculating the economic cost of violence, and the positive benefits of peace.
Some of they key findings from the latest 2020 report include:
- The average level of global peacefulness fell 0.34 per cent on the 2020
GPI. This is the ninth time in the last 12 years that global peacefulness has fallen. - Trends are polarising – around 80 countries got less peaceful, but 80 countries got more peaceful.
- The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remained the world’s least peaceful region.
- Europe remains the most peaceful region in the world, although it recorded a slight deterioration in peacefulness.
registering any change over the past year.
The Institute for Economics and Peace says its aim is to ‘create a paradigm shift in the way the world thinks about peace. We use data driven research to show that peace is a positive, tangible and achievable measure of human well-being and development.’
You can explore the Global Peace Index and download the full 2017 report for free on the Institute for Economics and Peace’s dedicated website – Vision of Humanity
Selected Key Findings of the 2017 Global Peace Index
Trends in peacefulness in 2020
There has been a divergence in peacefulness in the last decade – with the least peaceful countries getting less peaceful and the most peaceful countries getting more peaceful.
If you look at the breakdown by indicator, it is mainly refugees and internal conflicts driving the drift towards less peacefulness.
The economic costs of violence
- The economic impact of violence on the global economy in 2020 was around $14 trillion in purchasing power parity (PPP),
- This is equivalent to 12 per cent of the world’s economic activity (gross world product), or $2000 for every person.
NB – What’s above is just an overview – I strongly recommend you explore the data further at Vision of Humanity!
How Useful is the Global Peace Index in helping us to understand development?
Strengths
On the plus side, the data seems to be non-partisan, in the sense that there doesn’t seem to be undue influence in the data selection process from developed countries – there is a heavy peace-score penalty which some of the most developed countries pay for high levels of military expenditure – most notably the United States.
Also, if we can trust the data and the number-crunching, then there is a clear correlation between sustained peacefulness in a country and that country’s level of development, and so monitoring levels of peacefulness and violence seems to be one of the most important goals in global development.
The Global Peace Index covers a lot of indicators – and the reports break them down to look at individual indicators, so you get a certain level of insight into the levels of peacefulness and violence.
I do like the focus on ‘positive peace’ and the fact that the report recognizes high levels of military expenditure as retarding investment in more positive aspects of development.
Limitations
On the downside, I’m not convinced that all of the data is 100% valid – there has to be a lot of differences in the way data is recorded from country to country, especially in war-zones, so lots of missing conflict-deaths no doubt. This means making comparisons is difficult.
Also, I’m not sure they’ve included a broad enough range of indicators – the fact that Qatar creeps in at number 30 makes me suspicious, also – is violence against women included?
Also, I’m not clear about how the data is weighted – there’s lots of talk in the report about ‘multiplying factors’, and I don’t know enough about the maths behind the indices to evaluate how valid these calculations are.
