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Sri Lanka has been ranked 67th in this year’s Global Peace Index conducted by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
Sri Lanka with an overall score of 1.91 in 2026 is only behind Bhutan in the South Asian region, according to the yearly study that ranks 163 independent states and territories based on their level of peacefulness.
Bhutan is ranked 16th most peaceful nation in the world. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka was ranked 97th in the world in 2025.
The Global Peace Index measures a range of factors, including personal safety, internal and international conflict, militarization, political stability, crime, terrorism and more.
According to the 2026 report, South Asia recorded the worst deterioration in peacefulness on the 2026 GPI, with the average overall score deteriorating by 2.3 per cent. The region is ranked seventh of the eight GPI regions.
Five of the seven countries in the South Asian region deteriorated, with only two recording improvements. The deterioration was driven overwhelmingly by the ongoing conflict domain, which recorded the largest change at 7.1 per cent, reflecting escalating internal conflicts and cross-border tensions across the subcontinent.
The safety and security domain was relatively stable, while the militarisation domain recorded a small average deterioration.
Bhutan which is ranked 16th globally on the 2026 GPI was ranked 69th globally in 2008. Bhutan recorded a marginal deterioration of 0.4 per cent over the past year.