July 5, 2025, 12:28 pm | Read time: 6 minutes
The annually published Global Peace Index from the renowned Institute for Economics and Peace provides an overview of the most and least peaceful regions worldwide. In this article, we present the latest results for the Asia-Pacific region. Over the past year, it has become less peaceful but remains one of the two safest regions on Earth.
Asia, with approximately 44.6 million square kilometers, is not only vast but also difficult to generalize. Perhaps for this reason, the Institute for Economics and Peace divides the continent into three regions in its annual Global Peace Index (GPI): Asia-Pacific, South Asia, and Central Asia together with Eastern Europe. In this text, we look at the results for the Asia-Pacific region, which includes countries commonly considered part of Southeast and East Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
In a global comparison, the Asia-Pacific region ranks second out of eight of the most peaceful regions–with a downward trend. The most peaceful country in the region and the third most peaceful worldwide is New Zealand. The least peaceful is Myanmar, which ranks 153rd out of 163 countries and is also among the least peaceful countries globally.
Overview
The Safe Asia-Pacific Region Has Become Less Peaceful
Although ranked second globally, the Asia-Pacific region shows a slight decline in peace by 0.21 percent. According to the GPI creators, the region worsened by 1.1 percent in terms of ongoing conflicts, and militarization increased by 0.4 percent. However, the security situation has improved. This was revealed in the significantly decreased perceived crime and clear improvements in the political terror scale.
Ten of the 19 countries in the Asia-Pacific region were less peaceful last year, while the other nine improved.
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New Zealand Has Become Even More Peaceful
New Zealand remains the most peaceful country in the region and is also among the top three worldwide. Not only that, the country improved by another 3.1 percent last year. Among other things, the area of ongoing conflicts improved by 0.89 percent, placing it third in this area globally. New Zealand’s security situation even increased by 7.6 percent, currently ranking ninth worldwide. This was mainly due to the decline in violent demonstrations and the impact of terrorism.
Only two of the total 23 GPI indicators showed a setback: arms imports and militarization. The latter is a trend seen worldwide due to increasing crisis hotspots, as revealed by the Global Peace Index 2025 (TRAVELBOOK reported). In New Zealand, however, there was apparently something else: According to the GPI authors, New Zealand’s Defence Force recently had difficulties with personnel retention and its partly outdated navy and air force. Accordingly, the country increased its defense spending to address this shortfall.
Indonesia Shows the Most Improvement
The country that showed the greatest improvements in the Asia-Pacific region in this year’s Global Peace Index was Indonesia. Its peacefulness increased by 2.9 percent in 2024. According to the GPI, this was due to an increase in funding for UN peacekeeping, a decrease in arms exports, and the extent of political terror. In the past five years, Indonesia has achieved significant success in combating jihadist terrorism, according to the index. Outside of West Papua, there have been no terrorist attacks in the last three years.
Overall, Indonesia improved in 11 indicators, while four declined and eight remained the same. Indonesia improved in its security and militarization. However, the area of ongoing conflicts showed slight deteriorations. The country currently ranks 49th globally.
Myanmar Is the Least Peaceful Country in the Asia-Pacific Region
Myanmar emerged as a crisis hotspot last year. The country not only ranks last in its region’s ranking, but it has also deteriorated the most among all countries in it. And this in all three GPI areas: security, militarization, and ongoing conflicts. Globally, Myanmar shows the fifth-largest deterioration with a decrease in peacefulness by four percent. And this, despite having recorded one of the largest improvements worldwide just last year.
The decline in Myanmar’s peacefulness is explained by the index with the ongoing civil war between the ruling military junta and an alliance of pro-democracy fighters and ethnic minority groups. This keeps the political situation on the ground unstable. The index also states: “In 2024, violent crime in Myanmar remained elevated due to unrest and armed conflict. There were reports of government troops carrying out beheadings, gang rapes, and torture of civilians.”
Since the coup in 2021, more than 5,000 civilian deaths have been reported. Between April 2023 and June 2024 alone, there were 2,414 civilians, according to the GPI. Additionally, there is a high number of refugees and internally displaced persons. Overall, the security situation has deteriorated by 5.9 percent. The extension of the junta’s mandate and the elections scheduled for 2025 have further increased Myanmar’s political uncertainty, according to the GPI. Another factor contributing to the country’s instability is that Myanmar is the “world’s largest producer of synthetic drugs,” which in turn strengthens organized crime in the country.
Not least, at least 3,700 people died in an earthquake in March 2025, with thousands injured or missing. This is just one of a series of natural disasters in the country. Aid often reaches the affected areas only sparingly. On the one hand, this is due to damaged infrastructure, but on the other hand, it is the military junta that controls and severely restricts the distribution of aid supplies.
North Korea Currently a Bit More Peaceful
The second least peaceful country in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Global Peace Index 2025, is North Korea. Unlike Myanmar, however, the country showed improvements last year, allowing it to vacate its customary last place in the Asia-Pacific region for Myanmar. Nevertheless, North Korea is the third most militarized country globally, with the highest scores in the indicators of nuclear weapons and heavy weapons, military spending, and armed forces personnel.
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Japan More Peaceful, Singapore Slightly Less Peaceful
And what about the other countries, especially the vacation destinations in the region? Singapore is the second most peaceful country there and ranks sixth globally. At the same time, the city-state showed a slight decline in its peacefulness last year. The same applies to Australia. The country ranks 18th globally, holding 17th place in security. In the regional ranking, Australia is in fifth place. Tourist favorite Thailand slipped slightly, down five places to rank 86.
The current travel trendsetter Japan, on the other hand, improved compared to the previous year. In the regional ranking, the country is in third place, and globally it ranks 12th, gaining three places from the previous year. Vietnam, ranked seventh in the Asia-Pacific region, and the crisis-ridden Philippines also improved.
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These Are the (Un)Safest Countries in the Asia-Pacific Region 2025 According to the Global Peace Index
(in parentheses the ranking in the global ranking of 163 countries):
1. New Zealand (3)
2. Singapore (6)
3. Japan (12)
4. Malaysia (13)
5. Australia (18)
6. Mongolia (37)
7. Vietnam (38)
8. Taiwan (40)
9. South Korea (41)
10. Timor-Leste (44)
11. Laos (47)
12. Indonesia (49)
13. Thailand (86)
14. Cambodia (87)
15. China (98)
16. Philippines (105)
17. Papua New Guinea (116)
18. North Korea (149)
19. Myanmar (153)