In 2026, the geography of safety has become sharper — and more unequal. While global military spending hits a record $2.9 trillion and the number of active state conflicts climbs to 61, the highest since the end of World War II, a small group of countries remains where walking alone at night, leaving a bike unlocked, or trusting public institutions is still the norm.

Measuring that gap is the 2026 Global Peace Index (GPI), now in its 20th edition and produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The index ranks 163 independent states and territories, covering 99.7% of the world’s population, and shows a picture that has worsened for a 12th consecutive year: average global peacefulness fell 0.7%, with 99 countries deteriorating and only 62 improving.

So which countries are the safest in the world under these conditions? And, notably, where do Italy and the United States rank? Here is the complete top-50 ranking, along with an analysis of the factors pushing some states to the top — and dragging others toward the bottom.

How the Global Peace Index ranks the world’s safest countries

The GPI doesn’t measure crime alone. The index is built on 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators gathered from independent sources and organized into three domains:

  • Safety and societal security (homicides, violent crime, perceived insecurity, political instability, violent demonstrations, refugees and displaced people)
  • Ongoing domestic and international conflict (number of conflicts fought, deaths from internal and external conflict, relations with neighboring countries)
  • Degree of militarization (military spending as a share of GDP, arms imports and exports, armed-forces personnel, nuclear and heavy weaponry, contributions to UN peacekeeping)

Scores range from 1 to 5: the lower the score, the more peaceful the country. One methodological detail is key to reading the 2026 edition: most indicators are cut off at December 2025, while only a few — such as relations with neighboring countries — extend to March 2026. The impact of the Iran war, which began in late February 2026, is therefore only partially reflected in this ranking.

The world’s 50 safest countries in 2026: full ranking

  • 1. Iceland — 1.161 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 2. New Zealand — 1.343 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 3. Switzerland — 1.363 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 4. Slovenia — 1.369 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 5. Ireland — 1.371 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 6. Austria — 1.421 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 7. Portugal — 1.427 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 8. Singapore — 1.435 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 9. Finland — 1.478 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 10. Japan — 1.489 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 11. Denmark — 1.504 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 12. Malaysia — 1.513 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 13. Czech Republic — 1.517 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 14. Canada — 1.525 (North & Central America)
  • 15. Hungary — 1.538 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 16. Bhutan — 1.546 (South Asia)
  • 17. Netherlands — 1.566 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 18. Mauritius — 1.586 (Sub-Saharan Africa)
  • 19. Latvia — 1.589 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 20. Australia — 1.602 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 21. Belgium — 1.608 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 22. Poland — 1.615 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 23. Croatia — 1.619 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 24. Lithuania — 1.620 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 25. Estonia — 1.623 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 26. Bulgaria — 1.628 (Eastern Europe & Central Asia)
  • 27. Spain — 1.654 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 28. Germany — 1.657 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 29. Slovakia — 1.661 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 30. Montenegro — 1.672 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 31. Qatar — 1.676 (Middle East & North Africa)
  • 32. Timor-Leste — 1.681 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 33. Norway — 1.688 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 34. Mongolia — 1.692 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 35. Italy — 1.712 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 36. Albania — 1.725 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 37. Uzbekistan — 1.726 (Eastern Europe & Central Asia)
  • 38. Equatorial Guinea — 1.729 (Sub-Saharan Africa)
  • 39. United Kingdom — 1.730 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 40. Sweden — 1.732 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 41. Vietnam — 1.738 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 42. Taiwan — 1.751 (Asia-Pacific)
  • 43. Uruguay — 1.754 (South America)
  • 44. Kazakhstan — 1.771 (Eastern Europe & Central Asia)
  • 45. Romania — 1.788 (Eastern Europe & Central Asia)
  • 46. North Macedonia — 1.792 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 47. Tajikistan — 1.799 (Eastern Europe & Central Asia)
  • 48. Bosnia and Herzegovina — 1.810 (Western & Central Europe)
  • 49. Kuwait — 1.813 (Middle East & North Africa)
  • 50. Botswana — 1.823 (Sub-Saharan Africa)

What the top 50 really shows: geography, neutrality, and political resilience

The first takeaway is geographic. 28 of the 50 spots are held by Western and Central European countries, which — with an average score of 1.632 — remain the world’s most peaceful region, placing 28 of its 33 states in the upper half of the full rankings. Asia-Pacific follows with 9 entries, and Eastern Europe & Central Asia with 5. Only three African countries (Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea and Botswana), two Middle Eastern ones (Qatar and Kuwait), and a single representative each from South Asia (Bhutan), North America (Canada) and South America (Uruguay) make the list of the world’s safest countries.

The second variable is low militarization. Iceland, first for the 19th consecutive year with a score of 1.161 and with a wide lead over the rest of the ranking, has no standing army: the report attributes its position to the absence of armed forces, very low crime rates, and strong social cohesion. Over the past year it improved 2%, with a 42.9% gain on the violent-demonstrations indicator. The same principle applies to Switzerland (third), Austria (sixth) and Ireland (fifth), states whose neutrality or non-alignment with military blocs structurally lowers their militarization-domain score.

The third variable is geographic isolation. New Zealand, second with 1.343 and the top-ranked country in the entire Asia-Pacific region, posts the lowest score in its region on the ongoing-conflicts domain and improves 3.3% on militarization thanks to reduced arms imports. The same holds for Japan (tenth, improving 1.5%) and Australia (20th).

The fourth — and most volatile — variable is domestic political resilience. Poland illustrates this: it posts the largest improvement of any country in the 2026 edition, with its score improving 9.1% and a 23-spot jump, from 45th to 22nd, its best-ever showing in the index. The driver is the ongoing-conflicts domain, up 17.5%, with a 33.3% gain on relations with neighboring countries following the enhanced-cooperation treaty signed with France in May 2025. On the other side of the ledger, Warsaw’s score worsens 3.6% on militarization, with arms imports up 31.8%: it is now NATO’s largest arms importer, with defense spending estimated at 4.5% of GDP in 2025.

Peace vs. the rearmament race: what comes next

The rearmament race is precisely the biggest risk factor for the countries at the top of the ranking. Over the past year, 97 countries increased military spending relative to GDP, and more than a third of the global deterioration on this indicator is concentrated in Western and Central Europe, where NATO countries raised spending by roughly 20% in real terms in 2025, having pledged at The Hague summit to reach 5% of GDP by 2035.

It’s no coincidence that the region’s steepest declines include Belgium (21st, its score worsening 4.8% amid a 10.9% drop in its militarization sub-score) and Germany (28th, with its societal-security score worsening 8.3%).

Where Italy ranks among the world’s safest countries

Italy sits in 35th place in the 2026 Global Peace Index with a score of 1.712, 23rd among the 33 Western and Central European countries. Ahead of it remain Spain (27th) and Germany (28th), while behind it are the United Kingdom (39th), Sweden (40th) and, notably, France — last in the region at 99th place overall, weighed down by domestic crime and perceived insecurity.

The real warning sign, however, is economic and concerns the country’s overall weight on the world stage. Between 1995 and 2023, Italy’s share of global GDP fell 42%, from 3.8% to 2.2% — a decline the report frames within the so-called “Great Fragmentation,” meaning the waning influence of major European powers relative to rising middle powers.

Who’s left out? The world’s least peaceful countries

At the bottom of the rankings, Russia remains the world’s least peaceful country with a score of 3.367, despite a 0.7% improvement driven by fewer internal-conflict deaths. Weighing it down is militarization, which worsened 5.8%: 2025 military spending is estimated at 15.5 trillion rubles — just over $190 billion — equal to 7.2% of GDP.

Rounding out the bottom of the table alongside Moscow are Sudan (162nd), the Democratic Republic of Congo (161st), Ukraine (160th) and Israel (159th). Kyiv posts the largest improvement in its region, with its score up 3.6%, but still ranks third from last: Ukrainian military spending has reached 40% of GDP, the heaviest burden in the entire index.

On the Middle Eastern front, Palestine ranks 148th with a score of 2.877, a worsening figure. Israel improves 2.6% thanks to fewer violent demonstrations and less political instability, following the January 2025 truce — broken in March — and the second US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, an agreement the report calls fragile, with more than 2,000 documented violations recorded through March 2026.

The most politically charged data point, though, concerns the United States, which has plunged to 134th place with a score of 2.535, a 4% worsening. Its political-instability indicator collapses 38.5% — the worst annual swing ever recorded by the index for Washington — while its violent-demonstrations score worsens 37.5% and its terrorism-impact score worsens 16.2%. Political violence in the United States has reached its highest level since the 1970s, and 85% of Americans believe it is on the rise.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Emanuele Di Baldo on September 16, 2026 as «I 50 Paesi più sicuri al mondo nel 2026. Dov’è l’Italia?». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.