'Stable beacon': NZ ranks high in study of world’s safest countries

New Zealand has been rated the second-safest country in the world according to a yearly study that ranks 163 independent states and territories based on their level of peacefulness.

The Global Peace Index (GPI), released today by the Institute for Economics and Peace, ranked Aotearoa in second place, up from third in 2025.

The study covers 99.7% of the world’s population and uses indicators like societal safety and security, ongoing domestic and international conflict, and degree of militarisation to measure the state of peace.

The GPI report found that “New Zealand remains the most peaceful country in the Asia-Pacific region and the second most peaceful country in the world”.

“New Zealand recorded a slight improvement in peacefulness over the past year, with its overall score improving by 0.4%,” the report said.

“The improvement was driven by the militarisation domain, which improved by 3.3%, owing to a decrease in weapons imports.

“New Zealand continues to rank among the top countries globally on the ongoing conflict and safety and security domains and has the lowest ongoing conflict score of any country in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Professor Kevin Clements, director of the New Zealand Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago and former director of the Toda Peace Institute in Japan, was one of the experts who oversaw this year’s GPI, and said New Zealand has always ranked high in the index since it was developed in 2007.

“I think that on a basis of the indicators, when you think how chaotic the rest of the world is, even with all of our problems, we’re still a relatively stable beacon in terms of both positive and negative peace,” Clements told the Herald.

“If you look at the sort of top five – Iceland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ireland, Austria – what characterises all of them is that they’re small and their relative invulnerability and lack of a threat to anybody else. And also they’re not spending as much as other countries do on military expenditure.”

New Zealand was ranked the second safest country in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Photo / Getty Images

However, Clements warned that Kiwis shouldn’t take the country’s ranking for granted.

“I don’t think that we should be smug about that or take that for granted. I mean, we only narrowly avoided getting involved in [Donald] Trump’s invasion of Iran, for example.

“They were looking around for supporters, and fortunately Winston Peters said, you know, let’s think about it. But moving into conflicts like that would certainly start putting New Zealand way down on the index.

“I think it’s time for New Zealand to really be super cautious about how close we wish to be in terms of American erratic and unpredictable behaviour.”

‘Most peaceful country in world by significant margin’

Iceland remained the most peaceful country in the world for the 19th consecutive year, recording a further improvement in “peacefulness” of 2% over the past year.

“Iceland’s exceptional position is underpinned by the absence of a standing military, very low crime rates, and strong social cohesion,” the report said. “It is the most peaceful country in the world by a significant margin.”

Australia came in at 20th in the rankings, while Britain dropped seven spots from last year to 39th.

The United States was ranked all the way down at 134th, driven largely by a 38.5% fall on the political instability indicator.

“This is the largest single-year movement on that indicator since the GPI began, with political violence reaching its highest level since the 1970s,” the report said.

Israel, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan were all at the bottom five in the list, with Russia ranking as the least peaceful nation.

The United States and Israel have both been involved in global conflict in the past year. Photo / Getty Images

Global conflict at historic high

The GPI found that “the world has continued its longstanding trajectory of deteriorating peacefulness, with armed conflict the dominant driver of the decline”.

“There are now more active state-based conflicts than at any point since the end of the Second World War, while the number of countries involved in external conflict has nearly doubled since 2008,” the report said.

Ninety-nine countries witnessed a deterioration in peacefulness in the past year, the highest number since the inception of the index 20 years ago.

The global economic impact of violence increased by 3.2% to US$21.81 trillion ($37.55 trillion) in 2025, equivalent to 10.5% of global GDP, while deaths from global conflict remain at historic highs.

“I think all of this is ground for real concern for New Zealand,” Clements said.

He said a new threat to global peace has been the rise in technological warfare and artificial intelligence (AI) weapons.

“One of the things which we started kind of grappling with this time around is technological warfare, because machines and artificial intelligence are making life and death combat decisions faster than anybody can review them.

“So New Zealand, fortunately, [is less impacted by that]. I mean, it’s moving in that direction, but it hasn’t moved as fast as other countries.”