Wednesday, June 4th 2008
ACCORDING to the latest Global Peace Index released by the United Kingdom-based think tank Vision of Humanity, Trinidad and Tobago ranked 98th out of 140 countries in a study by the group this year.
The study, which includes 24 criteria, ranks nations in terms of how peaceful they are.
The number of deaths from organised conflict, levels of violent crimes and percentage of the country's gross domestic product allocated for military spending, were some of the factors used to determine the least and most peaceful countries in the world.
Iceland headed the list and was described as the world's most peaceful nation. Denmark was second, Norway third, New Zealand fourth and Japan fifth.
At the bottom of the list were countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Israel and Chad, and placing last again this year was Iraq.
In company with Trinidad and Tobago was the United States, with a rank of 97, while Jamaica was 96th.
The results were slightly different last year. Vision of Humanity did the survey using a total of 120 countries that time and Trinidad and Tobago placed 94th, the US 96th and Jamaica 81st. -GG
