Iceland ranked world's most peaceful nation, U.S. 97th in Global Peace Index

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The GPI is calculated as follows:

The index is composed of 24 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, which combine internal and external factors ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighboring countries and the level of respect for human rights. These indicators were selected by an international panel of academics, business people, philanthropists and peace institutions. The GPI is collated and calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

GPI gives a snapshot of relative peacefulness of the country. Then, it is up to the country to work on improving the conditions (such as democracy and transparency, education and material well being) within the country and outside.

The generated values show that Iceland is the world’s most peaceful nation. Iraq is ranked the lowest on this index. Afghanistan was among the bottom five along with Sudan, Somalia and Israel.

The U.S. dropped in rank from last year (96th) and finished 97th on the list. America was ranked only eight points away from Iran, which is ranked 105th.

Visionofhumanity.org Global Peace Index Graph image:40319:2::0

The U.S. government however is unfazed about the low rankings, as State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told Reuters:

"Often times, you have to do difficult things and a lot of times, people don't agree with them. They don't like them…A lot of times you fall down in these lists but at the end of the day it is in defense of democracy and the way of life we have enjoyed over the past several decades,"

Among the top 20, small, stable and democratic countries around the world, most came from western and central European regions. The Group of Eight major economic powers should have clinched the top spots but only some did; Japan was ranked 5th, Canada 11th, Germany 14th, Italy 28th, France 36th and Britain 49th.

The only consolation for the U.S. was that Russia was further down in the rankings near the bottom.

The index was launched under the auspices of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a new think tank that looks at the relationship between economics, business and peace.

Supporters of the index advised policymakers to focus on education, wealth and a well-functioning government to improve their ranks.

To see the full list of countries click here.