Picture downloaded from Vision and Humanity website
Taipei, June 1 (CNA) Taiwan has been listed 40th on the 2017 Global Peace Index (GPI) and the sixth most peaceful country in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the GPI rankings that were released Thursday.
The GPI, issued annually by the Sydney-based non-profit Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) since 2007, ranks 163 countries that account for 99.7% of the world's population.
The index gauges global peace by taking into account 23 factors within three main domains -- the level of safety and security in society, the extent of domestic or international conflict, and the degree of militarization.
The Australian institute uses a 1-5 scoring system to gauge each indicator, with a high score indicating a low level of peacefulness.
Taiwan scored 1.782 in the latest GPI survey, making it the sixth most peaceful country in the Asia-Pacific region.
Among the 19 Asia-Pacific countries in the survey, New Zealand was at the top with a score of 1.241 that also put it in second place globally, followed by Japan with a score of 1.408 and a 10th place global ranking, Australia (1.425, 12th), Singapore (1.534, 21st), Malaysia (1.637, 29th) and Taiwan with a 40th place global ranking.
China, ranked 116th globally, Thailand (120th), the Philippines (138th) and North Korea (155th) were listed among the least peaceful in the world.
The 2017 GPI indicated that the world became slightly more peaceful in 2016 as 93 of the countries surveyed showed improvement, while 68 deteriorated.
Iceland remained the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008, followed by New Zealand, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Canada, Switzerland, and Ireland and Japan, which were tied for 10th place.
In regional terms, the biggest deteriorations occurred in North America, followed by sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to the survey.
The score for North America deteriorated entirely as a result of the United States, which more than offset a mild improvement in Canada, according to the GPI website.
The global level of peace in the U.S. has deteriorated because of increased political polarization within the country's political system, according to the GPI survey.
