Locals and tourists on Hoàn Kiếm pedestrian zone in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam ranked eighth in the Asia-Pacific and 41st globally in the 2026 Global Peace Index (GPI), placing it among the most peaceful countries in the world.

Despite dropping three places from its 2025 ranking of 38th, Việt Nam’s overall score in the index was largely unchanged at 1.738. The country remained in the GPI’s second-highest category.

The index groups countries into five tiers: very high, high, medium, low and very low levels of peace, along with a separate category for countries not included in the report.

With this score, Việt Nam is also in the top four most peaceful countries in Southeast Asia, ranking behind Singapore (1.435), Malaysia (1.513) and Timor-Leste (1.681).

Each state’s level of peace is assessed using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from official and respected sources, according to the report. They are then scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with lower scores meaning higher states of peace.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace since 2007, the annual GPI report ranks 163 independent countries and territories according to their level of peacefulness, covering 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.

It measures the state of peace across three domains: societal safety and security, ongoing domestic and international conflict and the degree of militarisation.

Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world for the 19th consecutive year, followed by New Zealand, Switzerland, Slovenia and Ireland.

The 2026 results show that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.7 per cent over the past year.

It also marks the 12th consecutive year since 2014 that global peacefulness has deteriorated, and the 15th deterioration in the last 18 years.

This year’s GPI report noted that the world has continued its longstanding trajectory of deteriorating peacefulness, with armed conflict the dominant driver of the decline.

“There are now more active state-based conflicts than at any point since the end of the Second World War, while the number of countries involved in external conflict has nearly doubled since 2008,” the report reads.

There are now 103 countries that were at least partially involved in some form of external conflict in the past five years, up from 59 in 2008, according to the 2026 GPI.

This year’s report also examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping war and peacebuilding.

“The increasing use of AI in warfare is raising concerns about the erosion of meaningful human oversight in lethal decision-making,” according to the report. — VNS