Mauritius ranks 1st in Africa and 23rd worldwide (a progression of 1 spot compared to the 2019 report) in terms of peaceful countries, according to the ‘Global Peace Index 2020: Measuring Peace in a Complex World’ issued by the Institute for Economics & Peace.

The report compares 163 independent states and territories covering 99.7% of the world’s population on their level of peacefulness. It uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.

This year’s report also takes into account the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the level of peacefulness and examines how the impact of the pandemic, and in particular its economic consequences will increase the risk of severe deteriorations in Positive Peace over the next few years, and also gives an indication of the countries that are best placed to recover from the shock

Interestingly, Mauritius is one of the only four countries to get a perfect score in the domestic and international conflict domain alongside Botswana, Singapore and Uruguay.

In the African region, Mauritius takes the lead followed by Botswana and Ghana which are ranked 33rd and 43rd worldwide respectively. The region’s three largest improvers in peacefulness in the last year were South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, all of which recorded improvements of more than six per cent.

The full 2020 Global Peace Index Report can be accessed Here