It's kind of interesting to see how the BBC reports this story:
Norway rated most peaceful nation A study has ranked Norway as the most peaceful country and Iraq as the least in a survey of 121 countries.
The Global Peace Index, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, looked at 24 factors to determine how peaceful each country was.
It places the US at 96th on the list and the UK at 49th, while New Zealand ranks second and Japan fifth.
Clearly whaling was not among the considerations.
The authors say it is the first attempt to produce such a wide-ranging league table of how peaceful countries are.
Factors examined by the authors include levels of violence and organised crime within the country and military expenditure.
The formula seems to require some adjustments, but the results are still interesting.
The survey has been backed by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US President Jimmy Carter and US economist Joseph Stiglitz, who are all Nobel prize laureates.
...
Scandinavian and other European countries generally performed well in the survey.
But Britain's ranking comes partly from its involvement in Iraq and other conflicts.
The United States is 96th - between Yemen and Iran - [...] because of such things as its military spending, its involvement in Iraq, violent crime at home, and a high prison population.
The survey also places Russia and Israel at the wrong end of the scale - 118th and 119th respectively.
...
TOP FIVE COUNTRIES
1 Norway
2 New Zealand
3 Denmark
4 Ireland
5 Japan
...
BOTTOM FIVE COUNTRIES
117 Nigeria
118 Russia
119 Israel
120 Sudan
121 Iraq
There's more, and you can read about it
here.