Safety is always one of a traveler’s main concerns. The problem, however, is figuring out just how safe a country really is.
If you’d like to check on the safety of countries you’re planning to visit, a global think tank called the Institute for Economics and Peace has the data you need to plan your trip.
Each year, it compiles and releases its annual Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Amazingly, those states and territories comprise 99.7 percent of the world’s population.
The GPI (PDF) uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure each country’s 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 militarization.
These indicators include the number and duration of both internal and external violent conflicts, level of political instability, potential for terrorist acts, number of homicides, level of violent crimes, military expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product, and ease of access to small arms and light weapons.
The scores are then averaged to create an overall composite score. As you’d expect, the lower the score, the safer the country.
Here are the top 10 safest countries in the world according to the 2023 GPI.
- Iceland
- Denmark
- Ireland
- New Zealand
- Austria
- Singapore
- Portugal
- Slovenia
- Japan
- Switzerland
The World’s Least Peaceful Countries
Since the GPI analyzes 163 independent states and territories, it’s also possible to determine which countries are the least peaceful. Perhaps not surprisingly, Afghanistan is — once again — the world’s least peaceful country.
Here are the top 10 least peaceful countries in the world for 2023:
- Afghanistan
- Yemen
- Syria
- South Sudan
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Iraq
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