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Peace and Happiness: 2012 global index



Most people strive for peace and happiness – and so do most countries. Would you rather be peaceful than happy, or are they the same?

The Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney, Australia, released its latest Global Peace Index on June 12. It declared that over the past year, the world has become more peaceful. Militarisation and conflict have decreased after two years of increased global conflict, it reported. Only North Africa and the Middle East were less peaceful during the past year. (http://economicsandpeace.org/research/iep-indices-data/global-peace-index)

The Global Peace Index (GPI) is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations and regions in relation to their peacefulness, first launched in 2007. It ranks 158 nations according to their “absence of violence” and is composed of 23 indicators such as their level of military expenditure, relations with adjacent countries, and the percentage of their people in prison, using data from various UN and other agencies, and peace institutes around the world. The GPI also has an interactive map that provides data over time.

Its key findings are that, regionally, Western Europe remains the most peaceful region with the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) rated as the least peaceful region. Asia Pacific was the most improved region, whereas Latin America experienced an overall gain across 16 of its 23 countries to improve its regional index.

Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world, for the second successive year, and Somalia remains the world’s least peaceful nation for the second year running. Sri Lanka recorded the greatest leap up the index, rising nearly 30 places due to the end of their civil war, whereas Syria dropped over 30 places now placing it in 147th position out of 158 countries.

The 2012 GPI top 10 most peaceful countries over the past year are: Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Austria, Ireland, Slovenia, Finland, and Switzerland. The bottom 10 least peaceful countries are: Somalia (ranked last at 158), Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, North Korea, Central African Republic, Israel, and Pakistan.

But are peaceful countries happy countries?

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) developed by the New Economics Foundation in London, released this week, aims to “capture the tension between good lives now and good lives in the future.”  (http://www.happyplanetindex.org/)

The HPI, first introduced in 2010, measures sustainable well-being: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for their citizens. The HPI uses indicators on life expectancy, experienced well-being, and ecological footprints to calculate an efficiency measure, and rank for 151 countries. These are placed on a map shaded in colours according to their HPI scores.

Costa Rica was ranked the world’s happiest nation for increasing the life expectancy of its citizens beyond the American average and adopting strong environmental policies. Bangladesh was surprising ranked highly (ranked 11th) despite its dense population. This was due to their impressive gains in human development. America contrasted these countries. Americans have a long life expectancy, live reasonably contented lives, but their high consumption resulted in lowering their HPI index score (ranked 105).

The 2012 happiest countries over the past year are: Costa Rica, Vietnam, Colombia, Belize, El Salvador, Jamaica, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Guatemala – predominantly the Latin American region. The least happiest countries are: Botswana (ranked last at 151), Chad, Qatar, Central African Republic, Mali, Bahrain, Mongolia, Niger, Kuwait, and South Africa.

Pakistan, ranked low on the peace index, rated high on the happy index, at 16, while New Zealand ranked highest of the Western Nations at number 28. Others include: India (32), Switzerland (34), Iraq (36), United Kingdom (41), Germany (46), Syria (47), France (50), Georgia (55), China (60), Canada (65), and Australia (76).

A comparison of the top 10 peaceful countries with the happiness index (in brackets) shows the following:

  1. Iceland (88)
  2. Denmark (110)
  3. New Zealand (28)
  4. Canada (65)
  5. Japan (45)
  6. Austria (48)
  7. Ireland (73)
  8. Slovenia (87)
  9. Finland (70)
  10. Switzerland (34)
A comparison of the bottom 10 least peaceful countries with the happiness index (in brackets) shows the following:

149. Pakistan (16)
150. Israel (15)
151. Central African Republic (148)
152. North Korea (-)
153. Russia (122)
154. Democratic Republic of Congo (134)
155. Iraq (36)
156. Sudan (101)
157. Afghanistan (109)
158. Somalia (-)

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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