Vision of Humanity"

New Zealand is the world’s most peaceful nation, topping the “Global Peace Index” (GPI) for the second year running.

The fourth annual GPI has been compiled by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a global think tank that looks at the relationship between economic development, business and peace

In their latest index out today, the think tank suggests the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year.

New Zealand is followed by Iceland and Japan, the institute says small, stable and democratic countries consistently ranked highest.

Fifteen of the top 20 countries are western or central European countries.

Australia comes in at 19th and Papua New Guinea, the only other country in the region listed, is 95.

For the fourth year running, the country ranked least at peace is Iraq.

Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan follow.

The average score for the countries surveyed in the 2010 GPI is 2.02 (based on a 1-5 scale), a slight rise (less at peace) compared with last year, when the average stood at 1.964.

The top 10 GPI rankings:

1 New Zealand 1.188

2 Iceland 1.212

3 Japan 1.247

4 Austria 1.290

5 Norway 1.322

6 Ireland 1.337

7 Denmark 1.341

7 Luxembourg 1.341

9 Finland 1.352

10 Sweden 1.354

The bottom 10:

139 North Korea 2.855

140 Democratic Republic of the Congo 2.925

141 Chad 2.964

142 Georgia 2.970

143 Russia 3.013

144 Israel 3.019

145 Pakistan 3.050

146 Sudan 3.125

147 Afghanistan 3.252

148 Somalia 3.390

149 Iraq 3.406

Source: stuff.co.nz

Author: Michael Field

Date: June 8th