By Tourismreview.com
Published June 22, 2009

New Zealand is the safest destination on earth while Somalia is the most dangerous.TOURISM-REVIEW.COM reports.

According to the Institute for Economics and Peace in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Peace Index for 2009 report about peace in 144 countries, the ten world’s safest countries are 1. New Zealand; 2. Denmark; 3. Norway;  4. Iceland;5. Austria; 6. Sweden; 7. Japan; 8. Canada; 9. Finland;and 9. Slovenia.

Iceland, that was declared the safest county in 2008, was in 2009 edged out by New Zealand (it was ranked 4th in 2008) mainly because of the former’s economy that has suffered a severe hit from the global financial crisis.

The ten least safe countries, according to another report by Forbes magazine,  are 1. Somalia: 2. Afghanistan:3. Iraq; 4. Democratic Republic of Congo; 5. Pakistan;, 6. Gaza Strip; 7. Sri Lanka; 8. Yemen; 9. Sudan; and 10. Zimbabwe.

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As in 2008, the USA did not rank very well. It ended up as 83rd which is, however, an improvement in comparison with the previous year (going up from 97th position). Among the factors that cause the bad rankings for the USA is for example the ease of access to weapons, foreign wars or the number of imprisoned people.

Peace is not only good for civilians but it is vital for many kinds of business. Lack of peace causes significant economic losses.

Thanks to the global economic crisis, our world has become a less peaceful place, at least according to the GPI.

The countries were judged by 23 indicators like arms exports, number of jailed people, wars or degree of democracy. Based on the criteria the Global Peace Index was created.

The index provides measurable data that might be important to business people as well as for countries’ governments.

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The list of the most dangerous countries was created from data provided by iJet Intelligent Risk Systems and by Control Risks. Various indicators were used to determine the ranking. Crime rate, police protection, civil unrest, terrorism risk, kidnapping threat and geopolitical stability were among the assessed factors.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that destinations considered to be super safe do not belong to the danger league. A perfect example is Canada, the North American paradise for standard of living, yet littered with danger. Racoons and bats freely transmit rabies, bush and forest fires are commonplace, British Colombia is an active earthquake zone and its neighbour Alberta is also famous for deadly avalanches. Furthermore, Canada’s 401 highway is one of the deadliest stretches of road on the planet and murders and firearm crimes are more common in big cities such as Toronto than the Canadians let on.