By: Staff Writer
August 28, 2026
The Global Peace Index, 2026, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said that Jamaica is the third most peaceful country in the Americas behind Costa Rica and Canada at the second and number one spot.
The report, said that North and Central America recorded a significant deterioration in peacefulness on the 2026 GPI, with the average overall score deteriorating by two per cent.
Canada remains the most peaceful country in the region, with an overall score of 1.525. Canada recorded a marginal improvement of 0.1 per cent over the past year, driven by the Safety and Security domain, which improved by 1.8 per cent. However, both the Ongoing Conflict and Militarisation domains deteriorated slightly, by 0.7 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. The improvement on the Safety and Security domain was driven by gains on the perceptions of criminality and Political Terror Scale indicators, while the violent demonstrations indicator deteriorated by 14.3 per cent. Despite the overall improvement, Canada’s Safety and Security domain score has deteriorated over the longer term since 2008, deteriorating by 7.7 per cent.
Haiti is the least peaceful, ranked 142nd in the world, having been living through extreme gang violence since the assassination of their last president, Jovenel Moïse, in July of 2021.
“Haiti deteriorated across all three GPI domains, with the Ongoing Conflict domain recording the largest deterioration at 5.5 per cent, followed by the Militarisation domain at 2.8 per cent and Safety and Security at 1.5 per cent.
“The intensity of internal conflict indicator deteriorated by 12.5 per cent, while deaths from internal conflict increased by 3.7 per cent. Haiti’s crisis deepened significantly over the past year, with armed gangs allied under the ‘Viv Ansanm’ coalition consolidating control over much of the capital and expanding into three of the country’s ten departments.
“Between March 2025 and January 2026, over 5,500 people were killed and 2,500 were injured, while more than 1.45 million people were internally displaced. In October 2025, the United Nations authorised a new gang suppression force of up to 5,550 personnel to address the escalating security crisis.”
Consequently, The Dominican Republic recorded the largest deterioration in the region, with its overall score deteriorating by 4.7 per cent on the 2026 GPI. The deterioration was driven largely by the Ongoing Conflict domain, which deteriorated by 19.5 per cent, with 40 violent conflict deaths recorded in 2025, most related to organised criminal activity.
“However, although violent conflict has increased over the past year, over the longer run there has been a significant fall in violent deaths, with the homicide rate more than halving over the past decade.”
The report also said: “Mexico and Honduras recorded the joint largest percentage improvements in the region, with both countries’ overall scores improving by two per cent on the 2026 GPI. Mexico, ranked 139th globally and 13th in the region, improved primarily on the Ongoing Conflict domain, which recorded a seven per cent improvement driven by a 22 per cent decrease in the deaths from internal conflict indicator.
“Conflict deaths in Mexico are now at their lowest level since 2017. While civilian killings have declined in nearly every Mexican state since 2024,40 the security situation remains extremely challenging, with homicides rising by 400 per cent in Sinaloa in the year following the arrest of cartel leader Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada.”