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According to the 2025 Global Peace Index (GPI) published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, Cyprus is ranked 68th out of 163 countries, with an overall score of 1.933. That position places the island squarely in the middle of the global rankings, a reflection of strong internal stability, balanced against challenges that are largely external in nature.
The Global Peace Index, widely regarded as the world’s most comprehensive measure of peacefulness, evaluates countries using 23 indicators across three broad areas: levels of conflict, societal safety and security, and militarisation. Scores range from one to five, with lower scores indicating more peaceful conditions.
On a global scale, Cyprus remains considerably more peaceful than many major powers and conflict-affected states. Countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel sit near the bottom of the index, while nations like Iceland, Ireland and New Zealand dominate the top spots with scores close to 1.1. Cyprus’s lower ranking is not the result of violence or unrest, but rather the accumulation of long-standing pressures that weigh on its overall score.
The country’s strongest performance comes in the area of domestic and international conflict. Cyprus recorded no deaths from internal or external organised conflict and achieved the most peaceful possible scores for both. The impact of terrorism was also negligible, placing the island alongside some of Europe’s most stable countries in this category. In a world where armed conflict remains widespread, the absence of large-scale violence continues to be one of Cyprus’s defining strengths.
Internal security indicators paint a similarly reassuring picture. Political instability, political terror, homicide rates, violent crime and violent demonstrations all remain low by international standards. In these areas, Cyprus aligns far more closely with Western and Northern European norms than with countries further down the index where crime and unrest significantly undermine peacefulness.
One factor, however, weighs heavily on Cyprus’s overall position. The index assigns the highest possible score, indicating the lowest level of peace, to the number of refugees and internally displaced people as a share of the population. This single indicator has a substantial impact on the country’s ranking and clearly distinguishes it from more peaceful European states where such pressures are far less pronounced. While the GPI does not examine the policy causes behind these figures, it highlights population displacement as a key constraint on Cyprus’s overall score.
Militarisation presents a more nuanced picture. Cyprus spends a higher share of its GDP on defence and maintains more armed forces personnel per capita than the world’s most peaceful countries, many of which operate with minimal military capacity. At the same time, the island scores very low in terms of nuclear and heavy weapons capabilities and plays only a limited role in the global arms trade. Its contribution to United Nations peacekeeping missions remains modest, but still registers positively within the index.
Regionally, Cyprus ranks below Greece, which placed 45th worldwide, but remains ahead of several neighbouring and Mediterranean countries. The position reflects the reality of a small state that enjoys internal calm while navigating a complex and often tense geopolitical environment.
