Mauritius named region's safest nation, but it's bad news for South Africa

When it comes to choosing their next destination, travellers will take inspiration from a range of factors, including how a place aligns with their personal interests, its natural or cultural attractions, their budget, and what they’ve heard about it from their friends or online. 

But personal safety is a natural concern and the potential risks of a destination — such as crime, political instability and natural disasters — will inevitably play a part in the final decision. 

In that regard, the Global Peace Index is a useful shortcut to assessing how much risk one might face by choosing one destination over another.

Published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the study looks at countries using 23 factors — including the crime rate, levels of violence and demonstrations, their relationship with neighbouring countries, access to weapons, political stability and military expenditure — and assigns each country an overall score out of five.

The lower the score, the more peaceful the country. These are then ranked to reveal the world’s most and least peaceful nations. 

This year scoring 1.124, Iceland holds on to its position as the world’s most peaceful country, a spot it has held since 2008. It is followed by Denmark at No 2 and Ireland at No 3. 

Here are the world's 10 most peaceful countries with their scores:

1. Iceland (1.124)
2. Denmark (1.31)
3. Ireland (1.312)
4. New Zealand (1.313)
5. Austria (1.316)
6. Singapore (1.332)
7. Portugal (1.333)
8. Slovenia (1.334)
9. Japan (1.336)
10. Switzerland (1.339)

South Africa, with an overall score of 2.405, ranks poorly on a global scale, coming in at number 130, as well as on a separate ranking for Sub-Saharan Africa, where it sits at number 32 out of 44 countries.

The country has also dropped eight places since last year, scoring particularly poorly on the levels of perceived criminality in society, the homicide rate, access to weapons, violent demonstrations, violent crime and the proportion of the population that is in prison. 

Sub-Saharan Africa’s most peaceful country is Mauritius. With a score of 1.546, it ranks 23rd on the global list.

Here is the top 10 list for Sub-Saharan Africa: 

1. Mauritius (1.546)
2. Botswana (1.762)
3. Sierra Leone (1.792)
4. Ghana (1.799)
5. Senegal (1.827)
6. Madagascar (1.846)
7. Namibia (1.859)
8. Gambia (1.888)
9. Zambia (1.898)
10. Liberia (1.946) 

Afghanistan, scoring 3.448, is the least peaceful country in the world, a position it has held for the past six years. 

The index reveals that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated for the ninth year in a row. 

Read more about the research and see an interactive map here.