Uzbekistan beats UK and Sweden in global peace ranking
Uzbekistan climbed ten places to 37th in the 2026 Global Peace Index (GPI), becoming Central Asia’s highest-ranked state. It now sits above the UK and Sweden as global peacefulness falls for a 12th consecutive year.
Uzbekistan scored 1.726, where a lower figure indicates greater peacefulness, placing it seven positions ahead of Kazakhstan and second in the wider Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, behind Bulgaria.
That broader region was the only one of eight to improve, and only marginally. In a world full of lingering or emerging wars, peacefulness deteriorated by 0.7 per cent, while 99 of the 163 countries assessed lost ground, according to the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) which compiles the GPI.
The GPI, in its 20th edition, covers 163 states and territories representing 99.7 per cent of the world’s population. Its authority lies not only in its reputation but also in its breadth and a published methodology. The index has been consistently used by the UN, OECD, The Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Bank.
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The post-Soviet league
Uzbekistan’s overall score increased by 0.055. Its best result came in Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, where it received a score of 1.411 and was named one of the countries making the most progress in the domain.
The report does not specify which Uzbekistan-specific indicator caused the change, so attributing it to a specific reform or policy would be guesswork.
Militarisation scored 1.737, while Societal Safety and Security was the weak point at 1.995, covering factors such as violent crime, political instability, terrorism and displacement.
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Behind Uzbekistan come:
- Kazakhstan in 44th;
- Tajikistan in 47th;
- Armenia in 51st;
- Moldova in 55th;
- Kyrgyzstan in 61st;
- Turkmenistan in 66th;
- Georgia in 94th;
- Azerbaijan in 110th;
- and Belarus in 115th.
The lingering war leaves Ukraine at 160th and Russia last globally at 163rd.
The 2025 index placed Uzbekistan 67th with a score of 1.926, while the 2026 edition calculates its movement from a subsequently revised series. As IEP reviews its data and methodology annually, the current comparison between countries is clearer than a simple subtraction of the two published rankings.
The GPI combines 23 indicators from three domains, giving internal peace 60% of the final weight and external peace 40%. Its sources include the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme, United Nations agencies, Gallup, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
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