Global Peace Index 2025: India Rises to Rank 115 Amid Growing Global Unrest

The Global Peace Index (GPI) 2025, released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), measures the relative peacefulness of 163 countries based on 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators.

• The 2025 report notes a continued decline in global peace, with the average peacefulness deteriorating by 0.36% – the highest decline since World War II. Key Highlights India Performs better in Region:  India ranks 115th, improving its position over previous years and placing ahead of Pakistan (146), Bangladesh (124), and Afghanistan (163).
  • This reflects improvements in domestic conflict, terrorism-related incidents, and growing regional stability in India.

• Global: Peace Inequality is growing worldwide, the gap between most and least peaceful nations has widened by 11.7% over two decades.
• 74 countries showed improvements in peace this year despite an overall global decline.
• Iceland remains the most peaceful country since 2008,  whereas Afghanistan (Rank 163) is the least peaceful country.
• MENA (Middle East and North Africa) remains the least peaceful region for the 10th consecutive year.
• The world is at an inflection point, with global influence and power fragmenting.
• The number of globally influential countries has nearly tripled since the end of the Cold War, rising from 13 to 34 by 2023.
• Conflicts are becoming more internationalised, with 78 countries involved in conflicts beyond their borders in 2024.
• There are currently 59 active state-based conflicts – the most since the end of WWII, with 152,000 conflict-related deaths recorded in 2024.
• There were 17 countries with over 1,000 internal conflict deaths in 2024, the highest since 1999, and a further 18 countries that recorded over 100 deaths.
• The global economic impact of violence reached $19.97 trillion in 2024, equivalent to 11.6% of global GDP, with military expenditure alone accounting for $2.7 trillion.

About Global Peace Index

• It is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness and presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to-date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.
• The Global Peace Index covers 99.7% of the world’s population, and is calculated using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and 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.

The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)

• It  is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.
• Headquartered: Sydney
• It works with a wide range of partners internationally and collaborates with intergovernmental organisations on measuring and communicating the economic value of peace.