The Cayman Islands was ranked as the most politically stable country worldwide in 2022 ahead of Liechtenstein. The Caribbean island-state is known for its favorable conditions for large international companies and wealthy individuals, with no income and fortune tax.

Lowest stability in Syria

On the other end of the scale, Syria had the lowest political stability. The Middle Eastern-country has been ridden by civil war since 2012, with the Syrian government battling a range of military groups, including the terrorist organization Islamic State.

Fragile State Index

Another way of measuring political stability is the Fragile States Index compiled annually by the Fund for Peace. In 2023, Somalia was ranked as the most fragile state ahead of Yemen. The index measures state fragility on a range of economic, social, and political indicators.

In 2024, Norway was considered the world's least fragile state with an index score of 12.7 on a scale from zero to 120, where a higher score suggests the state is more fragile. Finland was ranked as the second most stable country globally, followed by Iceland. Meanwhile, Somalia was ranked as the most fragile state. The Fragile States Index assigns each country a score based on a range of social, economic, and political indicators.

Iceland was the most peaceful country in the world in 2024 with an index value of 1.1. Ireland, Austria, and New Zealand followed behind.What is the Global Peace Index? The Global Peace Index is an effort by the Institute for Economics and Peace to measure the degree of peacefulness in countries across the world and rank them accordingly. The first list was created in 2007 and has since then been published annually. The index includes a number of indicators relating to both domestic and international peacefulness. International indicators In regards to international affairs the majority of indicators relate to involvement in military conflict or the efforts of the state in question to resolve conflict and ensure the safety of those affected. For example those states that give more financial support to UN peacekeeping missions are considered to be more peaceful while those who have a higher military expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) are considered to be less peaceful. The United States never reached the top 20 of the list, in part due to it having a high level of military spending as a percentage of GDP. Domestic factors Domestic indicators focus on both the amount of violence and crime in addition to incarceration rates. Again, the United States fails to reach levels akin to other countries. The country’s incarceration rates are significantly higher than in other OEDC countries. Moreover, the number of deaths from gun violence also contributes to the relatively low peacefulness ranking of the United States.

The average for 2023 based on 24 countries was 0.47 points. The highest value was in Aruba: 1.43 points and the lowest value was in Haiti: -1.43 points. The indicator is available from 1996 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2023, Monaco and Andorra were the two safest country in the world according to the World Risk Index. San Marino followed behind. The Global Risk Index assesses the risk for disaster of 193 countries.

Most dangerous countries

On the other end of the scale, the Philippines was ranked as the country with the highest risk rate with a score of 46.86. India and Indonesia followed behind. A high number of the countries with the highest risk rates were located in Asia.

The World Risk Index - Assessing the risk of disaster

In the framework of the World Risk Index, disaster risk is analyzed as a complex interplay of natural hazards and social, political and environmental factors. Unlike current approaches that focus strongly on the analysis of the various natural hazards, the World Risk Index, in addition to exposure analysis, focuses on the vulnerability of the population, i.e. its susceptibility, its capacities to cope with and to adapt to future natural events as well as the consequences of climate change. Disaster risk is seen as a function of exposure and vulnerability. The national states are the frame of reference for the analysis. The index consists of indicators in four components: exposure to natural hazards such as earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts and sea level rise; susceptibility as a function of public infrastructure, nutrition and the general economic framework; coping capacities as a function of governance, medical services and economic security; and adaptive capacities to future natural events and climate change.

The average for 2023 based on 193 countries was -0.04 points. The highest value was in Singapore: 2.32 points and the lowest value was in Yemen: -2.28 points. The indicator is available from 1996 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

World Countries Generalized represents generalized boundaries for the countries of the world as of August 2022. The generalized political boundaries improve draw performance and effectiveness at a global or continental level. This layer is best viewed out beyond a scale of 1:5,000,000.This layer's geography was developed by Esri and sourced from Garmin International, Inc., the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (The World Factbook), and the National Geographic Society for use as a world basemap. It is updated annually as country names or significant borders change.

In 2024, Rwanda was the safest country in Africa. It had a score of roughly 73.2 points in the safety index, making it the African nation with the lowest crime incidents and the only country with high safety levels - over 60 index points. In several other countries in Africa, the level of safety was considered moderate (40 to 60 index points).

Syria was ranked as the politically least stable country worldwide in 2022 ahead of Afghanistan and Somalia. The country has been ridden by civil war since 2012, with the Syrian government battling a range of different factions.

Syrian Civil War has resulted in large number of refugees

The ongoing fighting and resulting instability in Syria has led to 6.5 million people fleeing the country, making it the largest source country of refugees worldwide. Over half of the Syrian refugees today live in neighboring Turkey.

Fragile State Index

Another way of measuring political stability is the Fragile States Index compiled annually by the Fund for Peace. In 2023, Somalia was ranked as the most fragile state ahead of Yemen. The index measures state fragility on a range of economic, social, and political indicators.

Discover the top import markets for rare gases in the world based on 2023 data. Learn about the countries driving global demand for rare gases.

Discover the top import markets for prepared dishes and meals worldwide. Explore key statistics and understand the magnitude of the industry. Find out which countries lead the market in import value and why. Read more on IndexBox market intelligence platform.

According to the 2023 Infrastructure Index, Singapore had the best overall political stability of the 40 countries ranked in the index. The three Nordic countries Finland, Norway, and Sweden followed behind. The index ranks the attractiveness in countries based on nine different criteria, including economic status, political stability, and private participation. Germany topped the index in 2023.

Country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. Country rankings may be compared or analysed separately. Indicators offered for each country: H Index, Documents, Citations, Citation per Document and Citable Documents.

Real-time payments, or RTP, were commonly used in Asia-Pacific in 2023, with transactions in India being almost 10 times higher as in China. RTP is important in India due to its implementation in the country's Unified Payments Interface or UPI. An expanded ranking on the number of instant payments per country places India at the top with a figure that was higher than 43 other countries combined. India is expected to keep this position by 2028, although its predicted CAGR will be lower than Brazil, the United States, and Indonesia. UPI (India) and Pix (Brazil) are the two main systems Real-time payments generally have two main characteristics that make them appealing: One, as the name suggests, payments can be initiated and settled almost immediately, allowing consumers, businesses, bank to send and receive money across the world within minutes. Two, these schemes are not bound to the opening times of a bank, and are available "24/7" and 365 days in the year. These traits matter especially to countries with a complex payment market that need to be digitalized — such as in India with its UPI system, but also in Brazil (PIX). UPI in India and Pix in Brazil together reached nearly 100 billion transactions in 2022. A2A payments: An enabler of real-time payment technology UPI and Pix are both also examples of applications that allow for A2A payments. A2A or account-to-account payments refers to direct payments from one party to the other without the need for an intermediary. Such intermediaries are card rails from the likes of Visa and Mastercard, which are essentially bypassed in A2A. These typically domestically developed payment options come from banks. A2A apps were more common in Latin America than in other parts of the world in late 2022. It should be noted that sources sometimes interpret A2A in different ways, as bank transfers (push requests) and direct debit (pull requests) can technically be a part of A2A as well.

WorldPop produces different types of gridded population count datasets, depending on the methods used and end application. Please make sure you have read our Mapping Populations overview page before choosing and downloading a dataset.


Bespoke methods used to produce datasets for specific individual countries are available through the WorldPop Open Population Repository (WOPR) link below. These are 100m resolution gridded population estimates using customized methods ("bottom-up" and/or "top-down") developed for the latest data available from each country. They can also be visualised and explored through the woprVision App.
The remaining datasets in the links below are produced using the "top-down" method, with either the unconstrained or constrained top-down disaggregation method used. Please make sure you read the Top-down estimation modelling overview page to decide on which datasets best meet your needs. Datasets are available to download in Geotiff and ASCII XYZ format at a resolution of 3 and 30 arc-seconds (approximately 100m and 1km at the equator, respectively):

- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 ( 1km resolution ): Consistent 1km resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020.
- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020.
- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 UN adjusted ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019)
-Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 UN adjusted ( 1km resolution ): Consistent 1km resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019).
-Unconstrained global mosaics 2000-2020 ( 1km resolution ): Mosaiced 1km resolution versions of the "Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020" datasets.
-Constrained individual countries 2020 ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using constrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for 2020.
-Constrained individual countries 2020 UN adjusted ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using constrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for 2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019).

Older datasets produced for specific individual countries and continents, using a set of tailored geospatial inputs and differing "top-down" methods and time periods are still available for download here: Individual countries and Whole Continent.

Data for earlier dates is available directly from WorldPop.

WorldPop (www.worldpop.org - School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton; Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville; Departement de Geographie, Universite de Namur) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University (2018). Global High Resolution Population Denominators Project - Funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1134076). https://dx.doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/WP00645

Discover the top 10 countries leading the global import market for Prepared or Preserved Fish and Dishes. Learn about the key players and import values in 2023.

This dataset provides values for GDP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

Explore the top import markets for plastic furniture in the world, including key statistics and trends. Discover which countries lead the way in the global trade of plastic furniture.

WorldPop produces different types of gridded population count datasets, depending on the methods used and end application. Please make sure you have read our Mapping Populations overview page before choosing and downloading a dataset.


Bespoke methods used to produce datasets for specific individual countries are available through the WorldPop Open Population Repository (WOPR) link below. These are 100m resolution gridded population estimates using customized methods ("bottom-up" and/or "top-down") developed for the latest data available from each country. They can also be visualised and explored through the woprVision App.
The remaining datasets in the links below are produced using the "top-down" method, with either the unconstrained or constrained top-down disaggregation method used. Please make sure you read the Top-down estimation modelling overview page to decide on which datasets best meet your needs. Datasets are available to download in Geotiff and ASCII XYZ format at a resolution of 3 and 30 arc-seconds (approximately 100m and 1km at the equator, respectively):

- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 ( 1km resolution ): Consistent 1km resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020.
- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020.
- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 UN adjusted ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019)
-Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 UN adjusted ( 1km resolution ): Consistent 1km resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019).
-Unconstrained global mosaics 2000-2020 ( 1km resolution ): Mosaiced 1km resolution versions of the "Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020" datasets.
-Constrained individual countries 2020 ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using constrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for 2020.
-Constrained individual countries 2020 UN adjusted ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using constrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for 2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019).

Older datasets produced for specific individual countries and continents, using a set of tailored geospatial inputs and differing "top-down" methods and time periods are still available for download here: Individual countries and Whole Continent.

Data for earlier dates is available directly from WorldPop.

WorldPop (www.worldpop.org - School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton; Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville; Departement de Geographie, Universite de Namur) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University (2018). Global High Resolution Population Denominators Project - Funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1134076). https://dx.doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/WP00645

Statistics illustrates most promising supplying countries of solid biofuels in the World from 2007 to 2024.