Bulgaria ranked 32^nd in the 2015 Global Peace Index with a score of 1.607, with the state of peace in the country identified as “high”.

Thus, the country's score has slightly deteriorated from 2014, when Bulgaria ranked 29^th.

The latest index of the Institute for Economics and Peace shows that the world is becoming increasingly divided with some countries enjoying unprecedented levels of peace, while others have fallen into further violence and conflict.

The index measures the state of peace in 162 countries according to 23 indicators, which can be grouped into three broad themes – the level of safety and security in society, the number of international and domestic conflicts and the degree of militarisation.

The levels of peace remained stable in the world over the last year, but were still below their 2008 values.

The report concluded that since last year, 81 countries have become more peaceful, while in 78 countries peace has deteriorated.

Europe is the most peaceful region in the world with many European countries reaching historically high levels of peace.

A total of 15 out of the 20 most peaceful countries are in Europe, including the three most peaceful ones – Iceland, Denmark and Austria.

Due to the increase of civil unrest and terrorism, the Middle East and North Africa has become the least peaceful region in the world for the first time since the the index was first devised in 2008.

The intensity of internal armed conflict increased dramatically with the number of people killed in conflicts increasing 3.5 times from 49 000 in 2010 to 180 000 in 2014.

The economic impact of violence amounted to USD 14.3 T, which represented 13.4 % of global GDP in 2014.

Syria remained the least peaceful country, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan.

The largest improvements in peace over the last year were recorded in countries, which ended wars with neighbours or their involvement in external conflicts, such as Guinea-Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt and Benin.

The country suffering the largest deterioration in peace was Libya, followed by Ukraine.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!