Armenia had the second largest increase in peacefulness on the 2020  Global Peace Index (GPI), with only its neighboring country Azerbaijan having a larger improvement.

It rose 15 places in the rankings and is now ranked among the 100 most peaceful countries, owing to a large improvement in relations with neighboring countries, as well as a substantial fall in its incarceration rate, say the authors of the annual report released by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The largest improvement occurred on the Ongoing Conflict domain, with improvements in relations with neighboring countries and a fall in deaths from internal conflict.

On the Safety and Security domain, Armenia’s incarceration rate improved significantly, falling over 35 per cent over the past three years to 76 prisoners per 100,000 people. This fall means that Armenia now has the lowest incarceration rate in the Russia and Eurasia region, according the report.

Improvement was also observed in the country’s homicide rate, political instability, and a fall in terrorism impact.

Despite the positive dynamics, Armenia was not found to have recorded deteriorations in some indicators.

Although political instability improved, it is thought to have come at the expense of increasing government interference, resulting in a deterioration in Armenia’s political terror scale score. There was also a deterioration in the Militarization domain. In contrast to the improvement in Azerbaijan, weapons imports rose significantly, as did military expenditure as a percentage of GDP.

H/T Tert