Around 238,000 people lost their lives in one of the armed conflicts that are taking place in the world in 2022, 96% more than a year before. This figure represents the highest level of deaths in this type of situation so far this century.
This is one of the main conclusions of the 17th edition of the Global Peace Index, a work prepared by the Institute for the Economy and Peace, whose data was released this Wednesday.
At the global level, the average level of peace in countries has worsened for the ninth consecutive year -0.42% compared to 2022-, as a consequence of the acceleration of regional conflicts, civil unrest and political instability.
In the same way, the level of world peace has deteriorated by 5% since 2008 and up to 95 countries have worsened their scores in the last year; while the average level of global peace has worsened in 13 of the last 15 years, with no year-on-year improvement since 2014.
Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008, followed by Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Austria. For the sixth consecutive year, Afghanistan is the least peaceful nation, ahead of Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Paradoxically, due to changing conflict dynamics, Afghanistan and Syria have seen improvements in their levels of peace.