Cyprus ranks 64 in Global Peace Index

Cyprus is ranked 64^th of over 160 countries in the Global Peace Index 2022 with a high economic impact for division, said the international think-tank Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP).

In its 17th edition, the report examined the level of peacefulness in 163 countries, representing 99.7% of the world population.

The 64th position signifies one step up the Index since the previous year. It also ranks Cyprus 31 among 36 countries in the Europe geographical category.

The Index uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources.

It measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarisation.

On Safety, Cyprus comes 67, Conflict 64, and Militarisation 33.

This year’s results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.42%.

It is the thirteenth deterioration in peacefulness in the last 15 years, with 84 countries improving and 79 performing worse than the previous year.

Iceland remained the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008.

Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Austria join it at the top of the Index.

Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the eighth consecutive year, followed by Yemen, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Turkey is quite low in the ranking, at 147, along with Iran. Greece ranks 60th.

The IEP report also estimates the economic impact of violence and threats to peace.

For 2022, it was $17.5 trillion in purchasing power parity terms. The figure is equivalent to 12.9% of the world’s GDP, increased by 6.6% from 2021.

Cyprus ranks high in economic impact.

It is 8th globally, with a cost equivalent to 23.3% of its GDP.

The report said Cyprus suffers high costs because of the number of refugees and internally displaced people.

It noted the impact of the wars in Ukraine and Ethiopia on the deterioration of global peacefulness, with the number of victims of conflicts rising to 238,000.