Sri Lanka now second most peaceful in South Asia: Report

June 10 (Daily Mirror) - The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) has released its 20th annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report for 2026, revealing that Sri Lanka achieved the largest percentage improvement in peacefulness within the South Asia region. 

Moving up to 67th globally, Sri Lanka has positioned itself as the second most peaceful nation in South Asia, trailing only Bhutan.

In the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2025, Sri Lanka ranked 97th out of 163 countries.

This positive trajectory stands in stark contrast to the broader global landscape, which saw an average 0.7 per cent deterioration in overall peacefulness, marking the 12th consecutive year of global decline.  

According to the report, Sri Lanka’s overall score improved by 2.3 per cent over the past year. This upward momentum was primarily driven by the country’s Militarisation domain, which registered a notable 6.4 per cent improvement, alongside a substantial 40.8 per cent gain in its UN peacekeeping funding indicator. Furthermore, Sri Lanka saw a 1.8 per cent improvement in its Safety and Security domain, anchored by a 25 per cent reduction in political instability

The 2026 GPI finds that the world became less peaceful for the 15th time in the last 18 years, with the average level of country peacefulness deteriorating by 0.7 per cent over the prior year.

This is the 12th consecutive year that global peacefulness has deteriorated. While some indicators, such as neighbouring countries relations, are updated to the end of March 2026, the cutoff for most indicators is December 2025, meaning that the full impact of the Iran war is not captured by the Index this year.

There are now 119 countries that are less peaceful than they were in 2008, the year the GPI was first published, and conflict has been the primary driver of the long-run decline. In the past year alone, 99 countries recorded a fall in peacefulness compared with just 62 that improved, with the majority of the 23 GPI indicators deteriorating on average and seven of the eight GPI regions also recording a deterioration.