The imperative for a comprehensive Global Safety Index in 2025 has never been more pronounced. In an era marked by rapid geopolitical shifts, technological advancements, and environmental pressures, understanding and navigating the complex dynamics of global security is paramount.
This index provides an indispensable analytical tool, offering a structured framework and robust quantitative indicators to assess the multifaceted dimensions of safety across nations.
Executive Summary
The 2025 Global Safety Index is designed to be an essential tool for understanding today’s complex security landscape. Building on Movingto’s core framework and integrating the latest data from the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2025, this report offers a clear, data-driven look at global safety trends.
This year’s findings reveal a sobering reality: global safety continues to decline for the eighth year in a row. This downward trend mirrors the stagnation seen in global liveability as instability and uncertainty reshape societies worldwide.
A growing divide has become evident. A small group of countries, mainly in Western and Central Europe, continue to hold top safety rankings. However, these nations are facing increasing pressures that test their long-standing stability.
Meanwhile, many other regions remain locked in cycles of conflict and insecurity. These challenges are driven by rising geopolitical tensions, increased militarization, ongoing internal conflicts, and escalating environmental risks.
For businesses, governments, and international organizations, the implications are serious. Safety is no longer just a social measure; it has become a vital strategic asset.
Countries and cities that succeed in protecting their people and infrastructure will be better equipped to attract talent, safeguard investments, and support long-term growth in an unpredictable global environment.
Defining the 2025 Global Safety Index: Pillars and Metrics
The 2025 Global Safety Index is constructed upon four core pillars, each meticulously defined to capture the breadth of a nation's security profile.1 These pillars are:
Crime Rate
This pillar is meticulously calculated based on official crime statistics, encompassing the rates of violent crimes, property crimes, and cybercrimes. A critical modern component of this assessment is cybersecurity, which considers reported cybercrimes and the robustness of a nation's digital infrastructure, reflecting the evolving nature of threats in the digital age.1
The explicit inclusion of cybercrime within this pillar signifies a profound and necessary evolution in the conceptualization of "safety" for the 21st century. This goes beyond traditional physical security to acknowledge that digital vulnerabilities are now integral components of a nation's overall safety profile.
A major cyberattack, for instance, can cripple critical infrastructure, impacting public services, and potentially leading to social unrest, thereby affecting multiple safety dimensions.
Political Stability
This metric refers to the likelihood of governmental changes occurring through unconstitutional or violent means, the presence and intensity of political violence or terrorism, and the overall strength and effectiveness of the rule of law within a country.1
Health Safety
This pillar is measured by evaluating the quality and accessibility of healthcare services, the prevalence of infectious diseases, and the overall resilience and capacity of a country's health infrastructure.1
Environmental Safety
This factor takes into account risks stemming from natural disasters, levels of air and water pollution, and the potential long-term impact of climate-related hazards on safety and well-being.1 The inclusion of "climate-related hazards" within Environmental Safety further broadens the scope of what constitutes a "safe" environment.
Climate-induced disasters can lead to displacement, resource scarcity, and conflict, directly undermining political and societal stability. Recognizing these interconnected, multi-domain threats is crucial for a truly comprehensive analysis of global safety.
The index is updated annually, with periodic adjustments made throughout the year to account for significant shifts in a country's safety conditions, ensuring its continued relevance and accuracy.1
Methodological Approach: Synthesizing Data for a Comprehensive 2025 Outlook
A key challenge in compiling the 2025 Global Safety Index, which explicitly stated that detailed 2025 data on global rankings, trends, and regional variations was "unavailable".
To address this and fulfill the report's mandate for comprehensive depth and current 2025 data, a strategic approach was adopted, leveraging complementary, authoritative sources.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) emerged as the primary and most robust data source for this report.2 The GPI's detailed measurements of "Societal Safety and Security" and "Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict" directly align with and provide the empirical content for the "Crime Rate" and "Political Stability" pillars of the
global's safety index framework. This alignment allowed for a data-driven assessment of these critical safety dimensions.
Furthermore, the Global Risks Report 2025 5 and the Global Assessment Report (GAR) 2025 7 were introduced as crucial supplementary sources. These reports provide broader contextual understanding, particularly for systemic environmental and technological risks that profoundly influence overall safety.
By transparently synthesizing these diverse and highly respected sources, this report constructs the most comprehensive and insightful Global Safety Index analysis possible, while strictly adhering to the structural and depth requirements outlined in the user's query.
The 2025 Global Safety Rankings: Apex and Abyss
The Global Safety Index reveals a bifurcated world, with a clear distinction between nations that exemplify high standards of security and those grappling with profound instability. Countries are assigned specific ranks in the index, highlighting their relative positions in terms of safety and peace.
The extent of the disparity between the safest and least safe nations is significant, underscoring the wide gap in security and stability across the globe.
The World's Safest Countries: Characteristics and Trends
The top-ranked countries in the safety index, primarily derived from the GPI, represent the pinnacle of national security and societal well-being. Iceland stands out as the safest country in the world, retaining the number one spot for the 18th consecutive year.
This remarkable achievement is attributed to its unique characteristics, including the absence of a standing army, record-low crime rates, and a highly developed education and welfare system.³
Western and Central European nations exhibit a significant presence within this elite cohort, with eight of the top ten safest countries originating from this region.² This group includes:
- Ireland
- Austria
- Switzerland
- Denmark
- Finland
The inclusion of Asia-Pacific nations like New Zealand and Singapore (a city-state with exceptional safety), alongside Portugal from Southern Europe, further illustrates the global reach of high safety standards.³
The safest countries are often recognized for:
- Low crime rates
- Effective justice systems
- Strong social welfare, contributing to their reputation for peace and security
Common characteristics among these top-tier nations include:
- Medium-sized populations
- Strong democratic institutions
- High levels of social cohesion
- Robust welfare systems
Each safe country is characterized by low crime and high stability. They are generally free from significant internal or external conflicts, and for some, geographic isolation (for example, Iceland and New Zealand) contributes to their security profile.³
Safe countries tend to share strong governance, effective law enforcement, and comprehensive social welfare systems, which underpin their high levels of safety.
However, a deeper examination reveals that even the high standing of these nations is increasingly precarious and not immune to broader global pressures. The demotion of Vienna from the top liveability spot, as detailed in the Liveability Index, due to isolated security incidents despite its otherwise perfect public services, underscores a critical fragility.⁸
This observation is reinforced by the GPI’s finding that Western and Central Europe, despite its dominance, experienced an overall deterioration in peacefulness due to increased defense spending and growing social tensions.³
This suggests that maintaining high safety levels in the current global climate demands continuous vigilance and proactive adaptation to evolving internal and external threats.
It cannot rely solely on historical stability, as the perception of safety and actual security events can swiftly impact a nation’s standing, making resilience a defining characteristic of sustained security. In these nations, personal security is a fundamental aspect of societal well-being, supported by trust in law enforcement and low crime rates.
The table below presents the top ten safest countries, summarizing their key safety features and global rankings.
The Least Safe Countries: Conflict, Instability, and Humanitarian Crises
In stark contrast, the countries positioned at the very bottom of the 2025 Global Peace Index, such as South Sudan and others, represent the lowest levels of safety and security globally. For the first time in 2025, Russia is identified as the least peaceful country, followed by:
- Ukraine
- Sudan
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
- Yemen²
Afghanistan, which held the unenviable title of the least peaceful country for six consecutive years, was the only country to do so but has now been surpassed by nations grappling with more intense and pervasive conflicts and instability.³
Russia and Ukraine, in particular, experienced the largest deteriorations in peacefulness in the latest assessment. Syria also continues its tragic position near the bottom of the index, reflecting the deep and persistent damage inflicted by years of civil war and the complex, unresolved dynamics of its transitional period.⁹
These nations are typically scarred by:
- Prolonged internal and international conflicts
- Weak governance
- Widespread violence
They are often epicenters of severe humanitarian crises, exemplified by the global surge to 122 million displaced persons, including a significant number of internally displaced individuals.
In many of these countries, millions have been forced to flee their homes as either refugees or internally displaced persons due to ongoing conflict and instability, with 17 nations having over 5% of their population displaced.²
The phenomenon of “forever wars” is particularly evident in these regions, with the GPI noting that:
- Only 9% of conflicts today result in a decisive military victory
- A mere 4% end with negotiated settlements⁹
This implies protracted instability and immense human suffering.
The persistent nature of conflicts and the alarmingly low rates of resolution in these least peaceful nations signify that safety improvements are not short-term prospects but deeply entrenched, generational challenges, impacting the world's population on a scale that exacerbates global inequality.
This creates a rapidly widening “safety chasm” between the most and least secure parts of the world, profoundly exacerbating global inequality in quality of life, access to basic services, and fundamental human security.
The ongoing humanitarian crises, particularly the massive displacement figures, are a direct consequence of this protracted instability, creating ripple effects that impact global safety and resource allocation.
The data on conflict resolution is not merely a statistical observation; it describes a global reality where conflicts are not reaching decisive ends, leading to prolonged instability, persistent humanitarian crises, and a growing, almost insurmountable, gap in safety levels globally.
Global Safety Rankings Comparison
To provide a clear overview of the global safety landscape, the following tables present the top 10 most peaceful and 10 least peaceful countries, based on the 2025 Global Peace Index.
The first table highlights the world's safest countries, which consistently rank among the top ten safest countries due to their high levels of wealth, strong social welfare, effective criminal justice systems, and good government-citizen relationships.
Top 10 Most Peaceful Countries in 2025
10 Least Peaceful Countries in 2025
Deconstructing Global Safety: A Deep Dive into Core Pillars
A granular analysis of the individual pillars of the Global Safety Index reveals the complex dynamics shaping the world’s security landscape in 2025.
Understanding these pillars is essential to develop peaceful societies, as each factor contributes to reducing violence and conflict across all three domains: social, political, and environmental safety.
The ultimate goal of these measures is to build peaceful societies that are stable, productive, and resilient.
1️⃣ Crime Rate: Trends in Societal Safety and Security
The Crime Rate pillar encompasses violent crimes, property crimes, and cybercrimes, alongside an assessment of the strength of a nation’s digital infrastructure.¹
In addition to these measures, the Numbeo Safety Index is often used as a comparative tool to gauge the perceived safety of cities and countries based on resident surveys, providing an additional layer of insight alongside traditional crime statistics.
While some specific indicators within the GPI’s “Societal Safety and Security” domain, such as violent demonstrations, terrorism impact, and the homicide rate, showed improvements in the past year, a broader and more concerning trend persists:
- Violent demonstrations have alarmingly deteriorated for 12 of the past 17 years, indicating a persistent underlying issue of social unrest.²
The challenge of high average homicide rates remains particularly acute in the Central and North America region, despite some recorded reductions in the number of homicides in several countries.²
This persistent issue is directly connected to observations from the Liveability Index regarding chronically low stability scores in US cities. These low scores are attributed to a
- “Greater incidence of social unrest… often rooted in the country’s racial inequalities, as well as weak gun-control laws that mean crime is often violent and fatal”.⁸
In contrast, some countries with high safety profiles have police forces that do not carry firearms, which is seen as contributing to their overall societal safety.
The evolving definition of “Crime Rate” to include digital security alongside traditional violent and property crimes, coupled with the complex interplay between social unrest and gun violence, indicates that “societal safety” is increasingly multifaceted and deeply intertwined with underlying socio-economic and political factors.
The inclusion of cybercrime acknowledges a new frontier of threat, where a major cyberattack can cripple critical infrastructure, impacting public services and leading to social unrest.
This suggests that effective strategies for improving crime rates must extend beyond conventional law enforcement to:
- Address systemic inequalities
- Implement robust digital defense mechanisms
- Tackle the root causes of social dissatisfaction and violence
The persistence of high homicide rates in some regions, despite overall improvements in other safety indicators, points to deep-seated structural issues that defy easy, superficial solutions. Crime, in this expanded view, is not merely a law enforcement issue but a symptom of deeper societal problems.
2️⃣ Political Stability: Geopolitical Fragmentation and Conflict Dynamics
The Political Stability pillar focuses on the likelihood of governmental changes by unconstitutional means, the presence of political violence or terrorism, and the overall strength of the rule of law.¹
The GPI’s central and most concerning finding is that global peacefulness continues its multi-year decline, a trend overwhelmingly driven by deteriorating political stability and escalating conflict dynamics worldwide.²
The legacy of the Cold War continues to influence current defense policies and levels of militarization, shaping the security landscape and contributing to ongoing tensions.
Several key drivers contribute to this decline:
- Geopolitical Fragmentation: This has substantially increased, particularly evidenced by the significant deterioration in “relations between neighboring states” since 2008, a trend observed in 59 countries.²
- Increased Militarization: A growing number of countries are increasing their defense spending and overall militarization, a direct response to rising geopolitical tensions, notably in Europe due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.² Military expenditure has become a key factor in this trend, with many nations allocating a higher percentage of their GDP to defense.
- Internationalization of Conflicts: Conflicts are becoming increasingly internationalized, with 98 countries involved in some form of external conflict over the past five years, a significant increase from 59 countries in 2008.³
- Precursors to Major Conflicts: Many factors that typically precede major conflicts are now more pronounced than at any time since the end of World War II, with 59 active state-based conflicts recorded globally.²
- Conflict-related deaths: The human cost is staggering, with 152,000 deaths attributed to conflict in the last year alone, and Ukraine, Palestine, and Russia accounting for over 63% of these fatalities.³
Trends in military spending, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP, have a significant impact on peace indices, as increased defense budgets often correlate with lower levels of peacefulness and higher militarization scores.
This pervasive decline in political stability directly aligns with the Liveability Index’s finding that “Stability” was the only pillar to see a global decline, explicitly attributed to escalating geopolitical tensions, heightened threats of terrorism, and widespread civil unrest.⁸ Specific examples include the profound impact of:
- The Russia-Ukraine conflict on Eastern Europe³
- The perilously high tensions in Kashmir between India and Pakistan⁹
- The ripple effects of the Israeli-Gaza conflict contributing to lower stability scores for cities like Tehran⁸
The escalating internationalization of conflicts and the pervasive trend towards “forever wars” with low resolution rates indicate a fundamental and concerning shift in the nature of global conflict. If conflicts are not resolved and spread across borders, their impacts become systemic.
This implies that political instability is no longer a contained national issue but generates widespread, cascading ripple effects that impact global supply chains, drive mass refugee flows, and even influence the stability of distant, historically peaceful nations through increased defense spending and heightened social tensions (e.g., anti-immigrant sentiment fueling unrest in the United Kingdom).⁸
This profound interconnectedness transforms global safety into a shared, complex challenge that necessitates unprecedented levels of international cooperation and integrated policy responses, moving beyond traditional state-centric security paradigms. This complex causal chain underscores that national safety is inextricably linked to global peace.
3️⃣ Health Safety: Global Health Infrastructure and Resilience
The Health Safety pillar evaluates the quality and accessibility of healthcare services, the prevalence of infectious diseases, and the overall health infrastructure of a country.¹
The Liveability Index observed a marginal global improvement in Healthcare for 2025; however, this aggregate figure conceals two starkly different narratives playing out across the world.⁸
One narrative highlights a clear trend of rapid improvement in the Middle East. Cities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have driven the upswing in the global average, largely due to:
- Massive government investments in expanding public healthcare systems
- Attracting private investment into state-of-the-art hospitals
This is a core component of national economic diversification strategies, such as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, and is directly reflected in the significant rank improvement of cities like Al Khobar.⁸
The contrasting narrative details the degradation of once-unimpeachable healthcare systems in some highly developed Western nations. All four Canadian cities surveyed, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montrea, saw their healthcare scores decline this year.⁸ This is attributed to:
- Sustained pressure on the country's decentralized national health service
- Unresolved funding debates
- Chronic staff shortages
- Long waiting lists for procedures and checkups creating significant strain⁸
The stark divergence in health safety trends — rapid, strategic improvements in the Middle East versus a noticeable decline in some developed Western nations — suggests a potential global rebalancing of healthcare capacity and quality.
This implies that traditional assumptions about healthcare excellence being solely tied to historically developed economies are being challenged.
For global businesses and talent, this creates both:
- New opportunities in emerging centers of medical excellence
- Unforeseen risks in established regions where public health systems are showing signs of fraying
This shift necessitates a re-evaluation of health safety as a dynamic and regionally variable factor in global mobility and investment decisions. T
he two opposing trends are not just factual observations; they suggest a fundamental shift in the global landscape of healthcare quality and accessibility, making "Health Safety" a highly dynamic and regionally differentiated pillar.
4️⃣ Environmental Safety: Natural Hazards and Climate-Related Risks
The Environmental Safety pillar takes into account risks such as natural disasters, levels of air and water pollution, and the potential impact of climate-related hazards on safety and well-being.¹ Crucial insights from the Global Assessment Report (GAR) 2025 underscore the escalating significance of this pillar.
The economic burden of disasters is growing substantially.
- Direct costs averaged $70–80 billion annually between 1970 and 2000.
- These surged significantly to $180–200 billion per year between 2001 and 2020, with the real cost being far higher due to indirect impacts.⁷
The economic impact of disasters on national and global economies is immense, often amounting to several percentage points of GDP and affecting millions of livelihoods.
The report explains that disaster risk is no longer an isolated issue but has become a “systemic threat to financial stability on a global scale”.⁷ Recognizing the economic value of peace and disaster risk reduction, investing in resilience not only saves lives but also preserves economic growth and stability.
The concept of “fiscal gaps” is particularly concerning, where a disaster is so costly that a country may be unable to meet its debt obligations, putting it at higher risk of default.
- This is a concerning reality, with a 10% annual probability for 61 vulnerable countries.⁷
The GAR issues an urgent call for “smarter investment” in disaster risk reduction (DRR), advocating for resilience to be:
- Integrated into project design and development rather than being an afterthought.
- Used to break the “destructive cycle of disasters, debt, un-insurability and humanitarian need”.⁷
Some countries and regions have demonstrated the largest improvements in disaster resilience by prioritizing proactive risk management and integrating climate adaptation strategies.
Environmental safety has transcended its traditional scope of localized natural events to become a critical systemic risk with profound economic, social, and political implications. The concept of “fiscal gaps” powerfully demonstrates how environmental hazards can directly undermine a nation’s financial stability, potentially leading to:
- Broader societal breakdown
- Increased internal displacement and migration
- Heightened political instability
If a country’s economy collapses due to disaster costs, it cannot provide public services (impacting health safety), maintain law and order (impacting crime rate), or prevent social unrest (impacting political stability). This creates a complex cascading effect on other safety pillars.
This elevates environmental safety to a core component of national and global security, demanding proactive, integrated policy responses that view climate resilience as an investment in overall safety and stability.
A World in Flux: Regional Analysis of Safety Trends
The 2025 Global Safety Index reveals a world undergoing significant shifts, with regional variations in safety trends reflecting diverse challenges and strategic responses.
Within each region, many countries experience different safety trends, highlighting the importance of examining multiple countries to understand the full scope of regional stability.
1. Western & Central Europe: Enduring Peacefulness Under Increasing Strain
Western and Central Europe continues to hold its status as the world’s most peaceful region, a fact underscored by its heavy presence in the top ten of the Global Peace Index, hosting eight of the top ten most peaceful countries globally.²
Notably, Austria achieved fifth place in the Global Peace Index, reflecting its strong position relative to other nations.
However, this dominant position is showing signs of stress. The region has experienced a concerning deterioration in peacefulness, evidenced by a 0.57% decline in its average score.³
Over the last decade, Western and Central Europe has seen shifts in peace and stability, with recent years marking a reversal of the positive trends observed earlier in the decade. This decline is primarily attributed to:
- Increased defense spending in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict
- Growing internal social tensions³
Austria, despite its high overall ranking and fifth place in the Global Peace Index, saw a specific deterioration due to a worsening terrorism impact indicator.³
The paradox of Western Europe maintaining its position as the most peaceful region while simultaneously experiencing a notable deterioration underscores that even highly developed and historically stable regions are not immune to the “Great Fragmentation” impacting global safety.⁴
Their safety is increasingly affected by a complex interplay of external geopolitical events (e.g., the Ukraine war leading to increased militarization) and internal social fissures (e.g., anti-immigrant sentiment, terrorism scares).
This challenges the long-held assumption of inherent stability in these regions, implying that their safety is a dynamic equilibrium requiring constant vigilance and adaptation to evolving threats, rather than a static state.
2. North America: Diverging Safety Challenges
North America's overall peacefulness slipped slightly in 2025, with the region recording a 0.7% reduction in its average score, moving closer to the global average level of safety challenges.³
This aggregate figure, however, masks a significant divergence in safety challenges between Canada and the United States.
Canada's Crisis of Services:
Canada experienced a notable deterioration, directly linked to sustained pressure on the country's public healthcare system, characterized by:
- Underfunding
- Chronic staff shortages
- Long waiting lists, directly impacting "Health Safety"⁸
The United States' Stability Deficit:
In contrast, US cities continue to be held back by chronically poor performance in "Stability."
- This is attributed to a "greater incidence of social unrest," often rooted in racial inequalities, and weak gun-control laws leading to violent and fatal crime.⁸
- While some US cities saw their rankings improve, analysts note this was largely due to more significant declines in other cities globally, rather than genuine underlying progress within the US.⁸
North America presents a stark and instructive contrast in its safety challenges: Canada’s primary struggle lies in the strain on its public services, directly impacting "Health Safety," while the United States' core problem is a deep-seated deficit of social and political "Stability" due to internal divisions and gun violence.
This regional divergence underscores that "safety" is not a monolithic concept but is profoundly shaped by distinct national contexts, historical legacies, and policy choices.
This necessitates highly tailored and context-specific solutions, as a "one-size-fits-all" approach to improving safety across the region would be ineffective.
3. Asia-Pacific: A Dynamic Region of Extremes
The Asia-Pacific region is characterized by its sheer diversity, simultaneously hosting some of the world's most peaceful and safest cities alongside areas on the front line of significant geopolitical risk.³
Australian cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide), New Zealand's Auckland, and Japan's Osaka are highlighted for their exceptional performance.
However, the region's overall peacefulness has deteriorated, with a 0.21% decline in its average score.³ This is particularly evident in the downgraded stability scores for cities in India and Taiwan, directly attributed to the heightened threat of military conflict and geopolitical tensions.
Conversely, some cities are showing marked improvement, such as Jakarta, Indonesia, which jumped in rankings thanks to an improved stability score reflecting progress in reducing the city's vulnerability to terrorism.
The Asia-Pacific region powerfully exemplifies the "fractured world" theme, simultaneously showcasing pockets of exemplary safety and rapid deterioration driven by escalating geopolitical tensions.
This dynamic environment presents a complex risk-reward profile for businesses and policymakers: significant opportunities exist in stable, high-performing areas, such as certain cities in Trinidad and Tobago, but these are juxtaposed with considerable risks in regions directly impacted by military threats and unresolved conflicts.
This necessitates highly granular and continuously updated risk assessment, moving beyond broad regional generalizations to precise, location-specific evaluations.
4. The Middle East & North Africa (MENA): Persistent Instability and Strategic Investments
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to be the world's least peaceful region, consistently hosting four of the ten least peaceful countries globally.²
Despite this pervasive instability, the region has registered significant gains in specific safety-related infrastructure. This improvement is almost entirely driven by advancements in healthcare and education within Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, stands out as the biggest mover, climbing an impressive number of places. This rapid ascent is a direct result of the kingdom's Vision 2030 plan, which is pouring vast resources into:
- Diversifying the economy
- Fundamentally upgrading social infrastructure
However, despite these strategic investments and improvements in "soft" infrastructure, the region continues to grapple with persistent political instability and violence in many areas, exemplified by cities like Tripoli, Libya, and Syria.
The MENA region presents a compelling paradox: while it remains the least peaceful in terms of conflict and political stability, strategic state-led investments are rapidly improving healthcare and education.
This suggests that economic diversification and social development efforts, driven by national visions, can significantly improve specific aspects of safety and quality of life, even in a region marked by fundamental political and security challenges.
This creates a complex and nuanced risk-reward profile for international engagement, where opportunities in specific sectors or countries must be weighed against underlying, deeply entrenched political risks.
The apparent contradiction between low overall peacefulness and significant gains in social infrastructure highlights that safety is multi-dimensional.
5. South Asia: Deterioration Driven by Internal and Cross-Border Tensions
South Asia is identified as the second least peaceful region globally, having experienced the largest average deterioration in peacefulness.²
This significant decline is attributed primarily to:
- Repressive measures implemented in Bangladesh under the Hasina government
- Heightened civil unrest and escalating internal and cross-border tensions in Pakistan²
Kashmir is specifically highlighted as an "escalation hotspot," where tensions between India and Pakistan remain perilously high.⁹
The region's trajectory underscores the profound impact of internal governance issues and persistent geopolitical flashpoints on overall safety.
Strategic Imperatives: Safety as a Corporate and National Asset
The findings of the 2025 Global Safety Index extend far beyond a mere assessment of national security, presenting critical strategic imperatives for businesses, governments, and international organizations.
1. The "Talent Magnet" Effect: Winning the War for Global Talent
In an economic landscape increasingly defined by remote work and cross-border collaboration, the competition for elite talent is fierce. In this environment, a city or nation's quality of life, particularly its safety profile, has transitioned from a "nice-to-have" perk to a decisive competitive advantage.⁸
Highly skilled professionals, who now have more choice than ever about where they live and work, are increasingly prioritizing factors beyond salary. The core metrics of living standards — including:
- Public safety
- Reliable transportation
- Quality schooling for their children
- Accessible healthcare
— are now significant drivers of relocation decisions.⁸
A city like Copenhagen, with its strong social protections, green policies, and safe environment, can act as a powerful "talent magnet," drawing in ambitious global workers who might otherwise choose a traditional economic hub.⁸
For companies, understanding these preferences is key to building effective staffing strategies, informing decisions about where to establish targeted hiring projects or new remote offices to attract the best and brightest.⁸
2. A New Lens for Risk Assessment and Site Selection
The 2025 index demonstrates that safety is now inextricably linked to corporate risk management.⁸
The increasing volatility of the Stability category means the index now serves as a valuable early warning system for social and political instability that could directly impact:
- Business operations
- Supply chains
- Investments⁸
A C-suite executive can utilize the index not just to determine the best location for an expatriate assignment but to gain a nuanced understanding of regional risk profiles.
- Declining stability scores in Western Europe due to social unrest, or downgrades in Asia due to military tensions, are critical data points for any company with a global footprint.⁸
- Conversely, the improving scores in the MENA region, driven by strategic government investment, may signal new opportunities for expansion into markets that are becoming more stable and well-serviced.⁸
The index provides a data-driven framework for making smarter, more resilient decisions about site selection for new offices, manufacturing facilities, and regional headquarters.⁸
3. Navigating the Complexities of Global Mobility
A strategic dilemma for many multinational corporations is the growing disconnect between the world's most attractive cities and its largest economic centers.
A company may be headquartered in London but find that the software engineer it wants to hire would prefer to live in Melbourne.⁸ This gap creates significant logistical and administrative challenges.
International relocation is fraught with complexity, including:
- Navigating disparate work permit and visa regulations
- Convoluted international and local tax laws
- Drafting employment contracts that comply with multiple legal frameworks⁸
These bureaucratic hurdles can lead to costly delays, compliance risks, and a frustrating experience for the employee.
This is where strategic solutions like an Employer of Record (EOR) become invaluable. An EOR is a third-party organization that acts as the legal employer for staff in a foreign country, managing all aspects of:
- Payroll
- Benefits
- Taxes
- Visa applications⁸
This model allows a company to rapidly and compliantly hire talent in a high-safety city like Zurich without needing to establish a costly and time-consuming local legal entity.⁸
The rise of EORs is the market's direct response to the strategic dilemma highlighted by safety indices, providing the agility needed to build a distributed global workforce that bridges the gap between talent preference and business necessity.⁸
Furthermore, research indicates that peace acts as a reliable predictor of a country's future economic performance, with higher levels of peacefulness associated with:
- Higher levels of business and technological innovation
- Higher worker productivity
- More access to credit
- Increased foreign direct investment¹⁰
This reinforces the business case for prioritizing safety in global strategies.
Concluding Analysis and Forward Outlook
The 2025 Global Safety Index presents a world at a standstill in overall safety, yet marked by constant underlying shifts. While some countries make clear progress, many others face growing instability.
The seemingly flat global average conceals a deeper dynamic of improvements being offset by rising threats elsewhere.
Looking forward, Stability is expected to remain the most volatile and decisive factor shaping global safety. Its decline is driven by structural challenges such as:
- Geopolitical conflicts
- Social polarization
- Civil unrest
- Economic fragility
Analysts suggest these pressures will persist, fueled by ongoing conflicts and an unprecedented number of global elections.
For example, Singapore demonstrates how targeted policies — like advanced surveillance and emergency response systems — can enhance resilience.
Regional trajectories will likely continue:
- Western and Central Europe must defend their top rankings despite mounting internal tensions.³
- North America faces critical tests of social contracts, with Canada’s healthcare strains and the US grappling with deep-rooted stability issues.⁸
- The MENA region’s gains from economic diversification hinge on the long-term success of reforms.⁸
- South Asia’s internal and cross-border tensions are expected to persist.²
Long-term risks, like climate change, threaten to destabilize societies further, underscoring the cascading nature of environmental threats.
Ultimately, the ideal global city or nation of the 21st century will not only be prosperous and well-serviced but, above all, resilient. It must deliver a high quality of life while actively managing and absorbing the shocks of an increasingly unpredictable world.⁸
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- Global Peace Index 2018 - https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Global-Peace-Index-2018-2-1.pdf
- Business & peace report - Vision of Humanity - https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BAP-2024-web.pdf
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