Sri Lanka was ranked 105 among the 162 countries in the Global Peace Index, 2014 put out by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Sri Lanka was ranked 110 last year.

According to the report Sri Lanka was ranked 4th in South Asia whereas India was ranked 5. Indian was ranked 143 in the global ranking.

Sri Lanka is the only country to go against the trend, mainly because of its improvement due to the cessation of the civil war, which brought it down from a high base of violence, the report said.

“The report indicated that the world had become less peaceful each year since 2008, according to 2014′s Global Peace Index (GPI).

The report said:

“The continued conflict in Syria, deteriorating situation in Ukraine and civil war in South Sudan helped contribute to the trend.

“The ongoing civil war in Syria has made it into the world’s least peaceful nation, with the country dropping below Afghanistan who held the spot last year.

“The top five most peaceful nations were completely unchanged from the previous year’s study, with Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland again runners up to Iceland. Europe remained the most peaceful region as a whole although the United Kingdom ranked 47th, France 48th and Turkey 128th.

“As well as Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan, the other nations in the bottom five for peacefulness were Iraq and Somalia.”