Peace seems like a rare thing these days. If you open up whichever news website you prefer (or newspaper if you’re kicking it old school), all you see is war. Thankfully, back in 2006, a Global Peace Index was invented to actually measure how peaceful a country is. I think we can be sure that America won’t score overly high on this.
Anyway, if you want to make a safe trip this summer, here are the most peaceful countries in the world.
Belgium
How can a country that perfected the art of brewing beer be anything but peaceful? It’s a small but somewhat overly complex country, sharing equal amounts of modern cityscapes and almost medieval historic parts.
Sweden
There’s not much certainty in life, but you can be very sure that if we’re looking at countries that are doing things right, Sweden will be quite high on the list. This is no exception.
Canada
The older, more intelligent brother of the United States. This country has amazing nature and free healthcare. Sounds like a truly peaceful place!
Finland
I mean, it’s another Scandinavian country. You can be pretty sure most of them will be in this list. All we see in the news is how amazing Scandinavia is and how happy all their people are. Finland is no different.
Japan
The most Western of Asian countries, Japan has really become a fascinating country. They have a high economy, a low crime rate and amazingly high happiness ratings. And it probably has more sushi than anyone can eat.
Switzerland
Money can’t buy happiness, but money can apparently buy peace. Their neutrality has given them quite a foothold in Europe and the fact that they welcome everyone’s big stacks of money probably helps too.
Austria
Being a country in the center of Europe isn’t always easy, especially if your country got a bit of a name because some dictator may or may not have been born there, but Austria seems to do just fine when it comes to being peaceful these days.
New Zealand
There’s a reason why they filmed the Shire from “The Lord of the Rings” there. It just looks peaceful, it’s no wonder people there are so calm and friendly.
Denmark
In true Scandinavian fashion, Denmark ranks extremely high on this list. Let’s all be honest: they’re probably so high on this list because whoever wants to move troops to Denmark has to go through Germany. Last time we had to do that, it took half the world to make it happen.
Iceland
In all fairness, Iceland cheated on this list. Who’d want to attack a floating puddle of ice in the deep north of Europe? Exactly, no one. It’s a beautiful country though!
