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Peace and Happiness

Recently, I wrote a post ranking the 25 Happiest Countries in the World according to the Happier Lives Institute.  A few days later, I stumbled across some information about the most peaceful countries and that made me wonder . . ..  

Do Peace and Happiness go hand in hand? 

The Global Peace Index (GPI) annually ranks 163 independent states and territories. This accounts for 99.7% of the world population.  A panel of international peace experts collect data and use 23 indicators to assess the safety and security of each country.  The results were released for 2024, and the top 25 most peaceful countries are . . .     

  1. Iceland
  2. Ireland
  3. Austria
  4. New Zealand
  5. Singapore
  6. Switzerland
  7. Portugal
  8. Denmark
  9. Slovenia
  10. Malaysia
  11. Canada
  12. Czech Republic
  13. Finland
  14. Hungary
  15. Croatia
  16. Belgium
  17. Japan
  18. Netherlands
  19. Australia
  20. Germany

The bottom 25 countries are . . .

  1. Yemen
  2. Sudan
  3. South Sudan
  4. Afghanistan
  5. Ukraine
  6. DR Congo
  7. Russia
  8. Syria
  9. Isreal
  10. Mali
  11. Somalia
  12. North Korea
  13. Iraq
  14. Central African Republic
  15. Burkina Faso
  16. Myanmar
  17. Nigeria
  18. Colombia
  19. Palestine
  20. Ethiopia
  21. Haiti
  22. Venezuela
  23. Niger
  24. Pakistan
  25. Mexico

As I compared the Happiest Countries report and the GPI report I discovered a few things. 

For the past 15 years, Iceland has been given the #1 spot of most peaceful countries which piques my interest and puts Iceland higher on my list of places to visit.  

In addition to Iceland the countries of Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Canada, Slovenia, Singapore, Portugal, Malaysia, Hungary, Croatia, Japan, and Germany were all listed in the top 25 on both lists as the happiest and most peaceful countries in the world. 

For comparison, the following countries made it on the Happiest countries list, but didn’t quite make the top 25.

United Kingdom ranked #23 in happiness but was #34 in peace.

United Arab Emirates ranked #21 in happiness but was 53rd in peace.

Costa Rica ranked #6 in happiness, but 58th in peace.

Two countries that were not listed on the Global Peace Index were Luxembourg which came in at #9 of the happiest countries in the world and Belize which came in at #25.  I did my own research and found that Luxembourg is not only one of the happiest countries, but also one of the more peaceful countries in the world.  However, due to some safety issues, the peacefulness of Belize is in question.  Although, it does not appear to be a countrywide problem but more prevalent in certain parts of the country. 

There were three countries that had a fairly large gap between their happiness and peace ranking. 

  • United States ranked #24 in happiness but was 132nd in peace.
  • Mexico ranked #10 in happiness but was 138th in peace.
  • Israel ranked #8 in happiness but was 155th in peace.

I found the report to be fascinating but discouraging as it appears the overall peacefulness in the world has deteriorated overall. 

Considering the fact that 18 of the top 25 countries are listed in both categories and some countries that fell out of the top 25, but not by much (i.e. Norway at 28th and United Kingdom at 34) it would stand to reason that peace and happiness do go hand in hand.  I would also like to give a shout out to Europe who has the majority of countries that are ranked as both the happiest and most peaceful in the world.

You can read the full report here.

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