Safest Country in the World 2026: GPI Rankings & Crime Rates

When people picture the safest country in the world, they usually imagine somewhere quiet, orderly, and low-key. Iceland fits that picture better than almost anywhere else: the Institute for Economics & Peace (GPI publisher) has ranked it first in every Global Peace Index since 2008, and the most recent edition — the 2025 report, the 19th overall — keeps it at number one.

Most peaceful country (GPI 2025): Iceland, score 1.116 (IEP (GPI publisher)) ·
Consecutive years as safest: 19 (since 2008) (BBC Travel (newsroom)) ·
Second safest country (GPI 2025): Ireland (IEP (GPI publisher)) ·
Third safest country (GPI 2025): New Zealand, score 1.343 (IEP (GPI publisher)) ·
Highest crime rate country: Venezuela (GPI internal-conflict metric) (IEP (GPI publisher)) ·
Safest for women: Iceland (Women, Peace and Security Index 2023)

Six facts, one pattern: the same small, stable countries own the safest end of the ranking, while conflict states anchor the bottom.

What are the 10 safest countries in the world?

The 2025 Global Peace Index top ten is almost entirely European. Here’s how the list breaks down, starting with the top five.

Which countries make the top 5?

• Iceland (1st) (IEP (GPI publisher))
• Ireland (2nd) (IEP (GPI publisher))
• New Zealand (3rd) (BBC Travel (newsroom))
• Austria (4th) (Forbes Australia (business outlet))
• Switzerland (5th) (Forbes Australia (business outlet))

Four of those five are European. The outlier is New Zealand, a Pacific nation that combines political stability with a low rate of violent crime (BBC Travel (newsroom)). For anyone planning a visit, our South Island New Zealand: Best Time, Itineraries & Tips covers the practical side of a trip there.

What about the top 20?

The rest of the top ten, per BBC Travel: Singapore (6th), Portugal (7th), Denmark (8th), Slovenia (9th), and Finland (10th) (BBC Travel (newsroom)). The exact edge of the top 20 shifts a little each year as conflict scores move.

How are safety rankings calculated?

• 23 indicators, organized into three domains (IEP (GPI publisher))
• Societal safety and security — the broadest measure of everyday peace
• Ongoing domestic and international conflict — war, internal violence, political unrest
• Militarisation — military spending, arms imports, nuclear capability

Those three domains bundle 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators and cover 163 states — 99.7% of the global population (IEP (GPI publisher)). According to BBC Travel’s summary of the 2025 results, Iceland leads all three domains, not just the overall table (BBC Travel (newsroom)).

Which is the safest country to live in the world?

“Safest to live” is a broader question than “most peaceful,” but the 2025 GPI leaders line up with what residents actually experience: low crime, stable institutions, and trust between neighbors.

What factors determine safety for residents?

• Small population and high social trust — Iceland’s defining traits (BBC Travel (newsroom))
• Low income inequality and a strong welfare state — Denmark’s edge (BBC Travel (newsroom))
• Political stability and strong rule of law — New Zealand’s backbone (BBC Travel (newsroom))
• Neutral foreign policy and low crime rates — Switzerland’s model (Forbes Australia (business outlet))

What the GPI rewards, in other words, is a society where violence is rare at every scale the index can measure — on the street, in politics, and across borders. Iceland’s volcanic landscape is part of that story too: the country’s biggest dangers are geological, not social. If you’re planning a trip, our Best Places to See Volcanoes: Safety, Tours & Top Destinations is a useful read.

How does cost of living affect safety perception?

That distinction matters for expats: national peace doesn’t automatically mean cheap housing, easy visas, or low everyday stress. Treat the ranking as a filter, then layer on cost-of-living and job-market data for the specific city.

Are Nordic countries the best for long-term living?

• Iceland ranks 1st on the 2025 GPI (BBC Travel (newsroom))
• Denmark ranks 8th (BBC Travel (newsroom))
• Finland ranks 10th (BBC Travel (newsroom))

Three Nordic countries in the top ten is a strong run, and they share the same recipe: generous welfare systems, low income inequality, and small, trusting populations. For long-term residents, the combination translates into predictable public services and low violent crime.

Which country is no 1 in crime rate?

The honest answer: it depends on which crime rate you’re reading. On the GPI’s internal-conflict and crime measures, Venezuela ranks as the highest-risk country (IEP (GPI publisher)).

Which country has the highest crime rate?

• Venezuela — highest-risk on the GPI’s internal-conflict metrics (IEP (GPI publisher))
• South Africa — a country frequently flagged in cross-index crime comparisons

South Africa also appears near the top of many cross-index comparisons, which is why the “number one” label changes depending on the dataset. The GPI’s internal-conflict lens and the UNODC’s recorded-crime statistics can point at different countries altogether.

What are the most dangerous countries?

• Syria — the most violent country in the 2025 GPI (IEP (GPI publisher))
• South Sudan and Afghanistan — consistently near the bottom in recent editions (IEP (GPI publisher))

These are conflict states, not merely high-crime states. The GPI’s ongoing-conflict domain measures war and internal violence, which is why the world’s most dangerous countries are the ones with active armed conflicts rather than the ones with the highest robbery stats (IEP (GPI publisher)).

How is crime rate measured?

For everyday safety, the GPI’s societal safety-and-security domain is the most relevant slice — it captures the violent crime and police trust indicators that matter at street level (IEP (GPI publisher)).

The trade-off: a country can be dangerous on one metric and safe on another, so the only number that matters is the one behind the specific question you’re asking.

What are the top 10 most violent countries?

This is the list nobody wants to top. The bottom of the 2025 ranking is led by conflict zones, with Syria named the most violent country in the world (IEP (GPI publisher)). The precise bottom ten changes between editions, but the same conflict states dominate it year after year.

Which country is the most aggressive?

• Syria tops the 2025 GPI as the most violent country, driven by ongoing conflict indicators (IEP (GPI publisher))
• “Aggressive” in GPI terms means internal and external conflict, not military posturing alone (IEP (GPI publisher))

The word “aggressive” isn’t a formal GPI category — the index measures ongoing domestic and international conflict, militarisation, and the societal conditions that allow violence to spread.

What is the most violent region?

The regions pulling the global average down are the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, where internal conflict and weak state control keep peace scores low (IEP (GPI publisher)).

What continent has the highest violence?

Group by continent, and the least-peaceful cluster is clear: sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. That holds whether you measure conflict deaths or the GPI’s internal-conflict scores.

Why this matters: the most violent list is a state-fragility warning, which matters more than crime rankings for anyone assessing geopolitical risk.

Which country is the safest for women?

General peace rankings don’t tell the whole story for women. The Women, Peace and Security Index exists because safety at home and in public life can diverge sharply from national conflict statistics.

How does safety for women differ from general safety?

The Women, Peace and Security Index combines safety, inclusion, and justice to capture women’s experience of security more directly than a general peace ranking can.

Which countries rank highest for women’s safety?

• Iceland — tops the Women, Peace and Security Index and the GPI
• Denmark — a repeat leader on both general and women-specific safety measures
• New Zealand — consistent top-three finishes on women’s safety indices

These three countries pair low violence with high gender equality, which is the pattern behind their dominance: gender equality and low violence correlate with overall peace. The GPI’s societal safety-and-security domain is one piece of that picture (IEP (GPI publisher)).

What metrics are used (Women, Peace and Security Index)?

• Safety — including violence against women and conflict exposure
• Inclusion — economic and social participation
• Justice — legal frameworks and access to institutions

The WPS Index’s three pillars overlap with the GPI’s societal safety-and-security domain, but they ask a sharper question: safe for whom, specifically?

The pattern: the countries safest for women are the same ones topping overall peace rankings — gender equality is one of the clearest correlates of national peace.

How the 2025 leaders compare

Five countries, one pattern: the safest nations score within fractions of each other, and they win because of institutional trust, not just low crime numbers.

The tighter the scores, the more the ranking is measuring institutional trust rather than street-level crime — a distinction that matters if you’re choosing where to live.

The upsides and downsides of relying on safety rankings

The Global Peace Index is the most complete safety dataset most people can access for free — but it answers a specific question, and it’s worth knowing what that question is. Here’s the balance sheet.

The implication: rankings are a lens, not a verdict. Use them to narrow the field, then verify with local data.

Timeline: Iceland’s run at the top

• 2008 — Iceland first tops the Global Peace Index (IEP (GPI publisher))
• 2025 — Iceland holds first place in the 19th edition with a score of 1.116 (IEP (GPI publisher))
• 2026 — BBC Travel reports the streak at 19 consecutive years as the world’s safest country (BBC Travel (newsroom))

What this means: a streak like this isn’t luck. It tracks with Iceland’s consistent scores across all three GPI domains — safety, conflict, and militarisation — which is the definition of durable institutional trust.

What’s confirmed, what’s unclear about the safest-country rankings

The takeaway: the headline ranking is solid, but the headline hides real disagreement about what safety means and how to measure it.

What researchers and reporters say

Iceland has held the number-one position in the Global Peace Index since 2008, and the 2025 edition — the 19th — is its latest first-place finish.

— Institute for Economics & Peace, GPI 2025 report

Iceland leads all three GPI domains — societal safety and security, ongoing conflict, and militarisation — and its overall score improved by 2% in the 2025 edition.

— BBC Travel, summarizing the 2025 results (BBC Travel (newsroom))

Austria ranks fourth and Switzerland fifth in the 2025 Global Peace Index.

— Forbes Australia (Forbes Australia (business outlet))

The upshot: the researchers and reporters who build and cover this ranking converge on one point — Iceland’s lead is structural, not accidental, and it reflects a society organized around avoiding conflict.

The safest-country ranking is really a measure of institutional trust, and Iceland’s 19-year run says more about durable governance than about any single crime statistic. For a family, a remote worker, or an investor weighing a move, the choice is clear: use the Global Peace Index to shortlist your candidates, then verify local crime data and living costs for the exact neighborhood you’re eyeing — otherwise, a statistically peaceful country can still feel like the wrong fit.

Frequently asked questions