According to the 2018 edition of Global Peace Index (GPI) which was released on Wednesday, Nigeria ranks as the 16th least peaceful country in the world.

In the report which ranked Nigeria 148 out of the total of 163 countries surveyed, Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world, closely followed by New Zealand and Austria while Syria is ranked least peaceful, coming after Afghanistan and South Sudan respectively.

In Sub-Sahara Africa, Nigeria is ranked 40 out of 44 countries with Mauritius as the most peaceful while South Sudan is ranked least.

According to the report produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the global level of peace has deteriorated by 0.27 percent in the last year, marking the fourth successive year of deterioration.

While noting that the world was less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade, it added that 92 countries deteriorated, while only 71 improved. Nigeria is one of such countries that deteriorated, up one place from its 2017 ranking of 149.

In 2016, Nigeria was pegged at 149, while the figure was 151 for both 2015 and 2014 in the report which covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population and uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from “highly respected sources” to compile the index.

These indicators are grouped into three key domains: ongoing conflict, safety and security and militarization. All three domains deteriorated over the last year.

“There’s been a gradual decline in peacefulness over the last decade. The reason for this slow, gradual decline in peacefulness really comes back to the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, and the spillover effects into other areas,” Steve Killelea, head of IEP said.