Bangladesh 3rd most peaceful in South Asia

Bangladesh has climbed up seven spots from its previous year's peace ranking to become the 91st most peaceful country on the Global Peace Index 2021 and the third most peaceful in South Asia.

The Institute for Economics and Peace released the 15th edition of the index on Thursday, ranking 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

The index captured the absence of violence or the fear of violence across three domains: Safety and Security, Ongoing Conflict, and Militarisation. 

With the improvement in the ranking, Bangladesh has replaced Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lanka has recorded a massive deterioration of its peace ranking by nineteen positions from 2020 to position itself 95th globally in this year's ranking and came 4th in South Asia.

It is followed by India which moved up two spots from its previous year's peace ranking to become the 135th peaceful country and 5th in the region.

The study highlighted that the largest improvement in peacefulness in South Asia occurred in Pakistan – which climbed up two spots to rank 150th globally and 6th in the region.

Afghanistan is the world's least peaceful country for the fourth consecutive year, while Bhutan and Nepal remained the most peaceful country in South Asia respectively, with their global peace ranking at 22nd and 85th respectively. 

The report found that Bangladesh and India have the lowest fear of violence rates in the region, with 25pc and 23pc of people respectively being very worried about violent crimes. 

Afghanistan has the highest fear of violence in the region, with 53pc of people being very worried.

Bangladesh 1.62pc more peaceful than last year

The index measured the peacefulness of countries made up of 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators under the three domains each weighted on a scale of 1-5. The lower the score, the more peaceful the country.

Bangladesh scored 2.068 on the 2021 index, while it was scored 2.102 last year, which indicates that the country has become 1.62pc more peaceful over the past year.

Meanwhile, the report found that the average level of global peacefulness has deteriorated by 0.07pc in the 2021 index. Although small, this is the ninth time in the last 13 years that global peacefulness has deteriorated.

The Middle East and North Africa region remained the world's least peaceful region. It is home to three of the five least peaceful countries in the world. 

Europe remains the most peaceful region in the world. The region is home to eight of the ten most peaceful countries, and no country in Europe is ranked outside the top half of the index.

Iceland remains the world's most peaceful country, a position it has held since the first iteration of the index, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal and Slovenia.