The country jumped three spots from last year, now occupying the fourth place position. According to the study, only Iceland, Denmark, and New Zealand are more peaceful.

The GPI uses a number of indicators when determining a country’s peacefulness. These include, but are not limited to: access to weapons, organized conflict, violent demonstrations, political instability, and conflicts fought. For the majority of indicators, Canada ranked a one, the lowest and most ‘peaceful’ ranking possible.

Overall, according to the GPI, the world became slightly more peaceful over the last year. All regions with the exception of the Middle East and North Africa experienced improvements in their levels of peacefulness. Canada’s rise in ranking was attributed largely to a scaling down of military efforts abroad, while maintaining an above-average level of peacefulness at home.