The United States has fallen near the bottom of the 2025 Global Peace Index, ranking 128th out of 163 nations, according to a new report from the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). The annual index, now in its 19th edition, evaluates countries based on their levels of societal safety, security, ongoing conflict, and militarization.
The ranking places the U.S. behind countries including South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.
The report — which covers 99.7% of the world’s population — uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators to assess each country across three domains: Societal Safety and Security, Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and Militarization.
This year’s findings suggest that the world has grown less stable overall. The IEP reported that global peacefulness declined by 0.36% in 2025, marking the 13th deterioration in the past 17 years. In total, 87 countries became less peaceful, while 74 improved.
The decline comes amid intensifying geopolitical tensions, a rise in militarization, and the highest number of active conflicts since the end of World War II. Researchers documented 59 state-based conflicts, three more than last year, and noted that 17 countries recorded more than 1,000 conflict-related deaths over the past year.
The report also found that conflicts today are more internationalized and less likely to end through traditional means. Only 9% of modern conflicts concluded in a decisive victory during the 2010s, down from 49% in the 1970s, while those resolved through peace agreements fell from 23% to just 4% over the same period.
In terms of regional trends, Western and Central Europe remains the world’s most peaceful region and home to eight of the ten highest-ranked countries, though its peacefulness has declined for four consecutive years. The Middle East and North Africa continues to be the least peaceful region, while South Asia saw the steepest regional decline in 2025. South America, meanwhile, was the only region to record an overall improvement.
At the top of the index, Iceland retained its position as the most peaceful country for the 14th consecutive year, followed by Ireland, New Zealand, Austria and Switzerland. At the bottom, Russia ranked as the least peaceful country, followed by Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen.
The IEP noted that the world has grown 5.4% less peaceful since the index was first published in 2008. The organization attributes much of the deterioration to the reversal of a nearly two-decade decline in militarization, with 106 countries becoming more militarized in the past two years alone.
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