Canada Ranks 14th on the Global Peace Index 2025

Top 25 Most Peaceful Countries in 2025

GPI 2025 North America

#1 – Iceland
#2 – Ireland
#3 - New Zealand
#4 – Austria
#5 – Switzerland
#6 – Singapore
#7 – Portugal
#8 – Denmark
#9 – Slovenia
#10 – Finland
#11 – Czechia
#12 – Japan
#13 – Malaysia
=14 – Netherlands
=14 – Canada
#16 – Belgium
#17 – Hungary
#18 – Australia
#19 – Croatia
#20 – Germany
#21 – Bhutan
=22 – Latvia
=22 – Lithuania
#24 – Estonia
#25 – Spain

Key Findings

Overall Peacefulness Declines: The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.36% in the last year, marking the sixth consecutive year of decline and the 13th deterioration in the last 17 years. Overall, 87 countries recorded a deterioration in peacefulness, while 74 improved.

Record Number of Conflicts: The world is facing a crisis of violent conflict, with 59 active state-based conflicts in 2023, the highest number recorded since the end of World War II. These conflicts are also becoming more international, with 78 countries involved in wars beyond their own borders.

Militarization Trend Reverses: After a decade-long trend of improvement, the Militarisation domain has now worsened for the second consecutive year. Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP saw its second-largest yearly deterioration since the index began, with 84 countries increasing their relative military spending.

Economic Impact of Violence: The global economic impact of violence reached $19.97 trillion in 2024, which is 11.6% of the world's economic activity or $2,446 per person. This increase was driven by rising military expenditure and GDP losses from conflict.

Most and Least Peaceful Nations: Iceland continues its long-held position as the most peaceful country in the world, a rank it has maintained since 2008. For the first time, Russia is ranked as the least peaceful country, followed by Ukraine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Canada's Peacefulness Declines: Canada is ranked 14th globally, making it the most peaceful country in the Central and North America region. However, it also experienced the region's most significant deterioration in peacefulness over the past year, with its score worsening by 5.8%, primarily due to increases in violent crime and heightened political tensions with the United States.

Regional Peace Overview: Western and Central Europe remains the world's most peaceful region, home to eight of the top ten most peaceful countries. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains the least peaceful region globally.

Conflict Resolution Is Failing: Modern conflicts are becoming harder to resolve. Since the 1970s, the percentage of conflicts ending in a clear victory has fallen from 49% to just 9%, while those ending through peace agreements have dropped from 23% to 4%.

Long-Term Peace Deterioration: Over the past 17 years, global peace has significantly worsened, with the average country's score deteriorating by 5.4% since 2008. The gap between the most and least peaceful countries continues to widen.

Diverging Domain Trends: While the Ongoing Conflict and Militarisation domains deteriorated, the Societal Safety and Security domain recorded a slight improvement globally. This was driven by improvements in indicators like the homicide rate and perceptions of criminality.

Geopolitical Fragmentation: Geopolitical tensions are rising, and the world is becoming more fragmented, with relations between neighbouring countries worsening significantly since 2008. Restrictive trade practices have nearly tripled since 2019, and global integration in economics, diplomacy, and military cooperation has been falling since the 2008 financial crisis.

Conflict Escalation Risks: The report identifies nine factors that increase the likelihood of conflicts escalating in severity, including external military support, high logistical supply, and ethnic exclusion. Based on these factors, conflicts in South Sudan, Ethiopia/Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria are identified as having a high potential to worsen significantly.

See more results and trends at the GPI 2025.

Global Peace Index: Methodology

GPI 2025 Ranking Table - 1-83

GPI 2025 Rankings - 1-83

The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world's population using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators drawn from highly respected sources, which are categorized into three main areas:

1. Societal Safety and Security

Utilizes six statistical indicators to analyze the extent to which countries are involved in internal and external conflicts, as well as their role and duration of involvement in said conflicts.

2. Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict

Utilizes eleven indicators to evaluate a nation's harmony or discord level. The assertion is that low crime rates, minimal violent demonstrations and terrorist activity, harmonious relations with nearby countries, a stable political scene and a small proportion of the population being internally displaced or made refugees are equated with peacefulness.

3. Militarization

Six additional indicators determine a country's militarization, reflecting a link to military buildup and access to weapons, as well as its level of peacefulness on both the domestic and international stages.

Total Scores

Scores for each indicator above are normalized on a scale of 1 to 5. Internal peace indicators are weighted at a total of 60 per cent, while external peace indicators are weighted at a respective 40 per cent. According to the GPI, greater levels of internal peace are likely to lead to lower external conflicts, which is why associated indicators are weighted 60/40.

A total score is then formulated for all 163 nations based on the scores above.

Peace & Progressive Development

GPI 2025 - Asia Africa Europe Oceania

GPI 2025 Rankings - 84-163

Canada's top 15 ranking on the GPI 2025 shows that our country is a leader on the world stage in many aspects. This provides insight into Canada's exceptional record on human rights protections, as peace and progressive development are inextricably linked ^[2].

According to the IEP, peace is a crucial component of progressive development. A healthy business environment must have favourable social, political and economic conditions to foster progressive development over time.

Global investors are always carefully observing conditions described in the IEP's Eight Pillars of Positive Peace, which include ^[3]:

Well-functioning government
Sound business environment
Equitable distribution of resources
Acceptance of the rights of others
Good relations with neighbours
Free flow of information
High levels of human capital
Low levels of corruption

These pillars are correlated with achieving desirable capital-related outcomes in prosperous business environments. Today, many investors look to criteria similar to the IEP’s Eight Pillars as a 'guiding light' on where to invest their money for it to grow.

However, truthfully, there still remain challenges for investors in Canada, particularly with its overburdening regulatory system, which has discouraged natural resource investment over the past several years.

Peaceful, Reliable Trading Partners

GPI 2025 Ranking Table - 84-163

GPI 2025 Rankings - 84-163

Questions remain: Where should investors put their money for the best results? Or, in other words, what are the best sources of supply for the natural resources the world needs?

Countries with a low ranking on the GPI that display low levels of social safety and security, high levels of militarization, and a high risk of violent internal and external conflicts?
Countries that rank high on the GPI with high levels of social safety and security, low levels of militarization, and little risk of violent internal and external conflicts?

The world’s ensuing resource security crisis is a prime example of why it matters where we get our natural resources. Western countries have learned quickly that over-reliance on unstable and unreliable autocratic regimes for oil and natural gas, for example, can lead to significant energy shortages with severe and unintended consequences, such as deindustrialization, inflation, and other economic hardships.

It’s clear that peaceful, reliable, and democratic supply sources, such as Canada, are the better investment choice for the natural resources the world needs.

Canada is a "Peaceful" Resource Powerhouse

With growing global demand for everything from food to energy to minerals to wood, it makes sense that these materials come from the most peaceful and reliable democratic sources — from places like Canada, which has world-class protections for human rights and a continued commitment to advancing critical social initiatives worldwide.

Canada, a bastion of global peace and democracy, is a reliable source of supply for all of the above. There’s no doubt about it.

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