The country of Slovenia is the highest ranking Balkan state in the 2009 Global Peace Index, coming in at 9th on the list. The index, which is maintained by the Institute for Economics and Peace, ranked 144 countries worldwide and was designed to measure the relative peacefulness of nations and regions around the world. The index defines peaces as the absence of violence and looks at 23 different indicators to use as measures.
Other Balkan countries did reasonably well, as Romania was the next regional country at 21st. A long gap then sees Croatia ranked at 49th place, with Bosnia and Herzegovina next at 50th. The rest of the Balkan nations and there rankings are: Greece, in 57th place; Albania in 76th, Serbia at 78th, Macedonia in 88th and Montenegro at 91st. Kosovo was not included on the list.
Globally, New Zealand ranks as the world’s most peaceful country. It was followed by Denmark and Norway. At the other end of the rankings, Iraq, once again, is at the bottom as the least peaceful country in the world. Also near the bottom as some of the least peaceful countries are Afghanistan, Somalia, Israel and Sudan.
