The world is more peaceful today than it was a year ago. The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said the world is now 0.28% more peaceful. The IEP reports on world peace every year. It publishes its Global Peace Index (GPI). This gives a peace score to 163 countries. It also advises countries on how to be peaceful. Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world. The next four countries are New Zealand, Portugal, Austria and Denmark.

The report says that 93 countries are more peaceful and 68 are more violent. Researchers looked at different things that change peace. They looked at the murder rate, the number of weapons, terrorism, and the number of soldiers a country has. Syria has been the least peaceful country for five years. The next four are Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen. There are too many problems in the Middle East and the USA.