Taiwan has dropped two spots to 40th place out of 163 countries in this year's Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
The index ranks countries’ level of peace according to 23 indicators across three domains: the level of societal safety and security; the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict; and the degree of militarization.
Indicators include incarceration rates, UN peacekeeping funding, internally displaced peoples, arms deals and violent demonstrations. Each indicator is ranked from one to five and then averaged, with lower scores indicating more peace and stability.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Despite tensions with China, Taiwan scored 1.73 points, an increase of 0.014 points from last year, but is still considered to be in a “high” state of peace.
Taiwan scored 1.62 in the conflict domain, 1.77 in societal safety and 1.787 in militarization, while scoring 4 in relations with neighboring countries, 2.944 for its incarceration rate and 2.573 for nuclear and heavy weapons.
The Asia-Pacific region was the world’s second-most peaceful behind Western and Central Europe, but its level of peace still declined from a year earlier.
The best performing countries in the region were New Zealand and Singapore, which made it to the overall top 10 list, while Taiwan ranked eighth in the region behind them, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Mongolia and Vietnam, in that order.
Japan had an overall score of 1.44, placing 12th in the world, and South Korea was 41st with 1.736 points, while China scored 2.093, dropping 11 places to 98th on the index.
The world was less peaceful for a sixth consecutive year, the report said.
Overall global peace is at its lowest level since the index first was published, with 17 countries experiencing more than 1,000 deaths from internal conflict last year, the highest figure since 1999.
Ninety-eight countries have been partially involved in a form of conflict in the past five years, up from 59 in 2008, while 84 countries posted an increase in military expenditures over the prior year.
The best performing country for the 17th year in a row was Iceland, with a score of 1.095, followed by Ireland, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Singapore, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia and Finland.
The index is published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank that researches the relationship between economics, business and peace.
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