Portugal has been found to be the fifth most peaceful nation in the world.
The Global Peace Index (GPI), released this week by the Institute for Economics and Peace, shows that Portugal outshone nearly all other nations on earth, including Switzerland (7th), Canada (8th) and Japan (9th).
Iceland was proclaimed the most peaceful nation, and has topped the index every year since 2008.
Following on were Denmark, Austria, and New Zealand.
Nordic countries, such as Finland, Sweden and Norway all ranked behind Portugal but were still in the top 20, taking the 11th, 14th and 17th spots respectively.
The results came from an analysis of 23 indicators concerning the presence of violence, or the fear of it. Metrics included were the levels of militarisation, security in society, and domestic and international conflict.
Indicators included were homicide, violent crime, political instability and terror, access to weapons and intensity of internal conflict.
Each was graded on a scale of one to five and then indexed into a final score which was compared to other nations.
In all, 163 nations were evaluated.
Germany took the 16th spot, Spain ranked 25th, the United States managed only 103 on the rank, while Russia was close to the bottom at 151.
Sadly, the least peaceful nations are ones riddled with war, terror and violence. Syria rated the lowest and its score was even worse than that of 2015. Only slightly less peaceful were South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen.
It is little wonder then that people from these scarred nations are trying to find peace in Europe. The report found Europe to be "the most peaceful region in the world, accounting for six of the first seven places in the global rankings".
As a whole, the index concluded that "overall global levels of peace continue to deteriorate while the gap between the most and least peaceful countries continues to widen".
The full report from the Institute for Economics and Peace can be accessed here.
