Budapest, May 20 (MTI) - The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a leading centre of global economic and political analysis, ranked Hungary among the most peaceful nations of the world in its Global Peace Index released on Tuesday.

Published annually, the Global Peace Index is composed of 24 indicators, including likelihood of violent demonstrations, number of external and internal conflicts and their victims, ties with neighbouring countries, political instability, military expenditure, frequency of homicides and ease of access to hand weapons.

The list, compiled for the second time since its start last year, showed Hungary in 18th place with 1.576 points on a scale of one to five, where one is the best grade. The survey covered 140 countries.

The EIU classified Hungary into the category where the state of peace was "very high". It scored the third highest in Central and Eastern Europe, only slightly worse than Slovenia and the Czech Republic, the most peaceful nations of the region.

Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Estonia and Lithuania ranked behind Hungary.

The list was topped by Iceland with 1.176 points, followed by Norway (1.343) and Denmark (1.333). The country least at peace was Iraq (3.514).
Source: The Budapest Times
Released: 21 May 2008