Peacefulness: Iceland is the world’s most peaceful country according to the 2013 Global Peace Index (GPI) published by the Institute for Economics and Peace. “The island nation is free from conflict,” reads the report summary. “Crime and homicide rates are minimal and the jailed population is considerably lower than elsewhere in Europe and among the smallest proportions in the world.” Iceland also scored high in the GPI for its few policemen (661 in the whole country as of 2010), the low perception of criminality in Icelandic society, the country’s lack of an army, and (rather contradictorily), for its cooperation in peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, and the Balkans.