According to the most recent edition of Global Peace Index, Portugal is the third most peaceful country in the world, after Iceland and New Zealand; thus increasing Portugal by two places compared to the previous year.
Among the 23 indicators included in the Global Peace Index are political instability, internal conflict, levels of violence and militarization. The main positive criteria in Portugal have been low access to arms, rare internal conflicts, low rates of violent crime, minimal political instability and good relations with neighboring countries.
Portugal has very well evolved in this ranking in recent years, since at 5 years ago, it was in 16th position
The rise of Portugal for third position, according to the Público newspaper quoting the report, represents the improvement of 12 of the 23 GPI indicators, among which political instability, internal conflicts, levels of violence and militarization of the 163 countries under analysis.
Europe remains the most peaceful continent, with eight European countries in the top 11 positions. But this year the chart shows changes in positions that have been conditioned by terrorist activity in several countries. Among them are France, Denmark and Sweden.