Think again before you brand the Middle East as less peaceful compared to the rest of the world. The results of the latest Global Peace Index indicate the contrary, with six countries from the region picking up a spot among the first 50 of the more peaceful nations.

Qatar, Oman, Tunisia, Kuwait, the UAE (ranked 44) and Egypt all occupy a slot within the first 50 in the list of more peaceful countries. Iraq and Israel are the least peaceful nations within the region occupying 149 and 144 spots, respectively.

For the fourth year running, the country ranked least at peace is Iraq, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan. New Zealand is ranked as the country most at peace for the second consecutive year, followed by Iceland and Japan.

According to the report, published by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa are the only two regions that have become more peaceful on average since 2007. The United States is ranked 85th in the list.

The result of the Global Peace Index for 2010, which gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarisation in 149 countries, suggest that the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year.

“Qatar is the nation ranked most at peace of the 18 that constitute the Middle East and North Africa region. The country moved up two places to 15th position in the 2010 GPI. Qatar’s indicators of safety and security are broadly accorded very low scores and its military is smaller, less active and less sophisticated than that of its neighbouring countries,” the report said.

While Iran is ranked 104, Saudi Arabia and Syria are ranked 107 and 115, respectively.

“Syria’s low rank reflects high scores for several measures of safety and security and militarisation, and relations with its neighbouring countries remained tense,” the report added.

Fifteen of the top 20 nations are western or central European countries. Qatar and Australia remained in the top 20 - in 15th and 19th places, respectively.

All five Scandinavian counties are in the top 10 of the GPI, although with the exception of Iceland, each experienced slight deteriorations in their scores and ranks. Island nations generally fare well, with the notable exception of Sri Lanka.

The project analysed 149 nations by their relative states of peace using 23 indicators such as internal and external peace, political stability, access to weapons and militarisation.

Some of the main findings of this year’s report is that societies that are highly peaceful also perform exceptionally well in many other ways with well-functioning government, sound business environment, respectful of human rights and tolerance, good relations with neighbouring states, high levels of freedom of information, acceptance of others, high participation rates in primary and secondary education, low levels of corruption and equitable sharing of resources.

South Asia experienced the biggest decline in peacefulness, due to the increase in the number of conflicts, the deaths resulting from these as well as deteriorating respect for human rights.

All major economic groupings analysed on average recorded a decline in peacefulness. Notably, the European Union high-debt countries of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain deteriorated the most, though they were closely followed by the Bric countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

According to the report, overall the world has become slightly less peaceful since 2007, with 62 per cent of countries recording decreases in levels of peacefulness.

Driving the decline are negative changes in the indicators measuring: military capability/sophistication, relations with neighbouring countries, number of deaths from organised conflict, number of homicides and duration of internal/external conflicts fought.

Analysing the monetary value of peace, the report says: “For the period 2006-2009, the total economic impact of the cessation of violence could have been $28.2 trillion.”

The detailed report can be accessed at  https://www.visionofhumanity.org