lol boyracers!! They arent a threat to homes. Id love a group of them to pull up my driveway! NZ is peacful cos we are pretty much good people with good leaders and a small military. Sorta like the small kid in class that looks ok, doesnt get picked on and does most of his homework. No one will pick on us unless we act like an angry little man. We are passive atm :) Weeeee men suck

Yay, we're considered peaceful compared to the world

...

That's not very comforting. at all.

It's a shame New Zealand is catching up with the world.no such thing as "isolated" anymore, unfortunately.

Some pretty sick things have been happening and it makes me sad for NZ's future.

Aussie is investing in billions of $ of ships, weapons, tanks, jets and the sort over the next 10 or so years- So they will be the Oceanic/Pacific Power they are much bigger than us anyway. Guess we are just more passive or "intellgent" in our own capacity- we cant afford a massive military, so thats why we dont have it. if we had zillions of $- it might be a different story? aussies got our backs, and we dont even hav to pay for it! woop.

Aaron #53. I think you have completely misinterpreted what I am saying. I am pointing out that we are lucky to be in the situation we are in, which is due largely to our isolated geography and the fact that other, bigger nations stand between us and potential trouble in this part of the world - even if we don't want to admit it. We should not use this "World's most peaceful nation" tag as something to go around boasting about. We should use it to examine the real reasons why we enjoy peace in New Zealand. Corporal Willie Apiata and his comrades do know - but how much do New Zealanders really want to know about what they have been doing on our behalf?

I think some people fail to realise that we were declared "most peaceful", not "completely peaceful". Crime is rising and there are areas of all major cities that are dangerous to be around at night, but one of my South African immigrant friends used to tell me stories about taxi price wars (where 'war' is literal, as taxi drivers carried guns and fired on each other), among other things. The article also mentions one of the indicators being the homicide rate, not assault.

Just because we're at the top doesn't mean we can't improve.

Peaceful is the perfect word for NZ and its no surprise

People in this country who moan about NZ not being Peaceful need to go to other countries. This is a flamming Global survey not a NZ survey, so if you dont know the difference between what hardship we endure compared to what other countries have to endure then hek count your self lucky. Yes we have unlucky instances of some parts of Auckland, Boy Racers, child abuse ect ect, I bet you my bottom dollar other countries would kill for NZ peacefulness compared to European riots, US wars, Current Australian racial issues, Fiji riots, Middle East wars, corrupt govenments, indigenous riots, drug empires ect ect. What the hek are some Kiwis moaning about???

We may not have the greatest military, but I bet you if it came to the final crunch you will be amazed of how many kiwis will step up to fight for this country. Kiwis are actually do'ers compared to many other countires.

@ e - you dare call someone's comment ignorant & prejudiced - but use the term 'Queer Rights'?

It's GAY - GAY RIGHTS! Thank you very much! SO not cool E.

thats one way to look at it JD,hahaha high five!

Gosh, most of these comments are deflating. Can we not just be happy for the title?

I agree with john, the reason for this is the extremely high percentage of people smoking marijuana in this country, In fact if you cross reference The Institute for Economics and Peace's list with the percentage of marijuana smokers in a country or people that have just smoked marijuana, they are almost identical. Lets legalize weed, hold hands and sing in unison.