The world became less peaceful in 2024 for the 12th time in the last 16 years

Yangyel Lhaden

Bhutan has once again been recognised as the most peaceful country in South Asia, ranking 21st globally out of 163 nations in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2024.

Bhutan is the only country from South Asia to be among the top 21 most peaceful countries in the world. However, Bhutan’s rank dropped four places from 17 in 2023.

The GPI, now in its 18th edition, measures peace using 23 indicators across three domains: Societal safety and security, ongoing domestic and international conflict, and militarisation.

Bhutan’s performance highlights its continued progress in these domains, even as global trends point to a steady decline in peace.

The 2024 GPI is the 18th edition, which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. It uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure the state of peace across three domains: the level of societal safety and security, the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict, and the degree of  militarisation.

The GPI 2024 reveals a sobering reality—the world has become less peaceful for the 12th time in the last 16 years. The average level of peacefulness deteriorated by 0.56% over the past year, with 97 countries recording a decline in peace—marking the highest number of deteriorations in a single year since the index’s inception. Only 65 countries improved, highlighting the uneven state of global peace.

The report states that the conditions for major conflicts are at their highest since World War II, with 56 active conflicts. Fewer conflicts are being resolved, either through military victory or peace agreements. Conflicts are increasingly internationalised, involving 92 countries, complicating peace efforts. Militarisation, which had improved for 16 years, reversed in 108 countries in 2024.

The safety and security was the only domain which saw improvements in 81 countries, while 77 countries deteriorated. The largest deteriorations occurred in Ukraine, Myanmar, and North Macedonia, with Ukraine having the highest increase in military expenditure. Every indicator in the Militarisation domain worsened on average.

Bhutan ranks fourth most peaceful country in the degree of militaraisation domain while South Asia is ranked third least peaceful region among the nine. South Asia has been ranked third least peaceful region since 2019.

Eight of the nine regions in the world deteriorated in peacefulness in the past year. Russia and Eurasia were the only regions to improve on average over the past year, although both Russia and Ukraine deteriorated in peacefulness.

South Asia has four countries ranked in the 100s on the GPI, with Sri Lanka at 100, India at 116, Pakistan at 140, and Afghanistan at 160. Bangladesh ranks 93, while Nepal is at 30. In the 2024 GPI, South Asia was the third least peaceful region, behind only MENA and sub-Saharan Africa.

The region saw a slight decline in peacefulness, with four of its seven countries experiencing a drop in overall scores. The primary driver of this decline was a worsening Militarisation domain, marked by lower United Nations peacekeeping contributions and rising  military spending  since 2012. However, both the Ongoing Conflict and Safety and Security domains showed improvements on average.

Bhutan recorded the largest increase in peacefulness in the region over the past year, with its overall score improving by 2.6 percent “It improved on both the Militarisation and Safety and Security domains, although there was a slight deterioration on the Ongoing Conflict Domain. Bhutan’s score on the Political Terror Scale improved, and it now has the best possible score on this indicator,” the report states.  “However, the police rate in Bhutan is higher than in countries with similar levels of peace, with almost 600 police or internal security officers per 100,000 people.”

Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world in 2024, a position it has held since 2008 and Yemen is the least peaceful country in the world in 2024. This is the first year that Yemen has been ranked as the least peaceful country in the world, with the country having fallen 24 places in the ranking since the inception of the index.

The report states that the gap between the most and least peaceful countries in the world is now wider than it has been at any point in the last 16 years. Compared to 2008, the 25 most peaceful countries were one percent more peaceful in 2024, while the 25 least peaceful countries were 7.5 percent less peaceful.