Colombia is Latin America’s most violent nation, according to the Global Peace Index‘s (GPI) 2010 report, which ranks the Andean nation as the 138th most peaceful nation out of the 149 countries in the study.
The GPI analyzes how peaceful nations are using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators, which combine factors such as military expenditure, levels of violence and crime, democracy and corruption, education, respect for human rights and material well-being. A lower score on the list indicates a more peaceful country.
While Colombia was Latin America’s least peaceful nation, followed by Honduras at 125 and Venezuela ranked at 122, Uruguay was the region’s most peaceful, with a ranking of 24.
Globally, the world became less peaceful for the second consecutive year, the fourth annual GPI study found. New Zealand is the world’s most peaceful country and Iraq the least.
In the 2009 study Colombia was ranked 130th out of 144 countries included in the study.
The study, first presented in 2007 by Australian businessman Steve Killelea, is the only index that quantifies world peace.
