10 Most Dangerous Countries in the World

Mali is the 10th most dangerous country in the world, having fallen two places between the 2023 and 2024 GPIs. It’s also the third least peaceful country in sub-Saharan Africa out of the 44 nations the IEP analyzed.

As of July 31, 2023, the U.S. Department of State has ranked Mali a “do not travel” country, citing kidnapping, robbery and other violent crimes as reasons to avoid the area. The State Department says:

The economic impact of violence in Mali is equivalent to 15.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), proving just how negatively the turmoil is affecting the local economy.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, causing the country to retaliate in what has become one of the deadliest terrorist attacks of the past 50 years. The IEP says the “latest estimates suggest that over 35,000 people have been killed in the conflict, although the true number is likely to be far higher.”

With the ongoing conflict in Gaza being the primary source of strife, Israel had the fourth-largest deterioration among the 163 countries on the GPI, falling 11 places between 2023 and 2024 to enter the top 10 least peaceful countries.

In addition to claiming lives and throwing the entire region into dangerous chaos, the fighting has taken a huge toll on the country’s economy, with the economic impact of the violence seeing a 40 percent increase between 2023 and 2024.

The IEP also reports that, of the Israelis it surveyed, just under 30 percent say they no longer feel safe in their own neighborhood — a steep increase from 17 percent the previous year.

The Middle Eastern country has some improvement in political stability due to President Bashar al-Assad solidifying his hold upon power. Even so, the decade-long civil war has created a humanitarian crisis, and the IEP considers Syria the eighth most dangerous country in the world.

The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that nearly 5.5 million people — many of them children — have fled Syria since the fighting started, in what has become the world’s largest refugee crisis in decades. According to the IEP, Syria also saw the largest deterioration in perceptions of criminality.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in what would become the largest European war since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. According to the IEP, “There have been more than 2,000 fatalities in the Russia-Ukraine conflict almost every month for the past two years.”

Although Russia and Eurasia was the only region that improved in peacefulness in the past year when the IEP averaged the countries’ overall scores and score changes, the “overall levels of peacefulness in the region remain very low, driven by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia,” the organization says.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the sixth-most dangerous country in part because of deteriorating relations in 2020 with neighboring Zambia over disputed territory, which led to border skirmishes between the two countries’ military forces.

In addition to the national armed forces, other groups have become involved in the local conflicts, including rebel factions like the M23 group, which has taken control of the area’s mining industry. At least 5.6 million people remain displaced as a result of conflicts in the DRC.

As of Jul. 9, 2024, the U.S. State Department ranks the DRC as a “reconsider travel” country, noting that “violent crime, such as armed robbery, armed home invasion and assault, is common. Local police lack resources to respond effectively to serious crime. Assailants may pose as police or security agents.”

According to the IEP, “The latest figures suggest that there were over 83,000 deaths from internal conflict in Ukraine alone in the past year, meaning that over half of all conflict deaths in 2023 occurred in this one conflict,” referring to the bloody tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Compared to last year’s index, Ukraine fell three places due to its deterioration in peacefulness. Due to the ongoing conflict, 30 percent of Ukraine’s population is estimated to be displaced (pre-invasion, just 1.7 percent of the population was displaced).

As a consequence of the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s economic cost of violence has equaled 68.6 percent of the country’s GDP — a higher percentage than that of all the other countries on the index.

Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, few people have been permitted to leave the country, and according to Human Rights Watch, Taliban forces have executed former officials and raided homes of journalists, activists and human rights defenders. Women’s and girls’ rights are under attack, and many females who were previously in authority positions have been fired.

Violence in Afghanistan ate up 53.2 percent of its GDP in 2023. The country saw the greatest deterioration in two categories: militarization (due to the Taliban increasing the size of the local military), and safety and security.

The lack of peacefulness in the low-ranked countries can be a problem for inhabitants and visitors.

“This depends on the country and the type of violence,” Morgan says. “It is possible for high levels of violence to be concentrated in certain regions, while other regions remain relatively safe. Generally speaking however, a country that is ranked at the very end of the index will likely be in some sort of open conflict, meaning that peacefulness is an issue for both inhabitants and visitors.”

The African nation broke away from Sudan and began an independent state in 2011, but disputes between the two countries keep the South Sudan volatile, according to the U.S. State Department, which says that abuses against civilians, including “appalling levels of sexual violence,” have forced 4 million people to flee their homes.

Internal conflict in the sub-Saharan African country increased in 2022, with the nation losing 39.7 percent of its GDP to violence that year. In 2023, the nation saw a slight improvement, with 13.9 percent of its GDP lost to violence.

In April 2023, conflict broke out between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). According to the United Nations, civil war in Sudan has caused 8.6 million people to be displaced inside and outside the country, with more than 14,000 people killed.

Internal conflict has led to shortages of food and a 50 percent increase in reports of sexual assault, according to the United Nations. Even before the civil unrest, conflict was on the uptick in Sudan, which lost 29.9 percent of its GDP due to violence in 2023.

Yemen is the least peaceful nation in the world, according to the IEP’s 2024 GPI. This is the first year the index has ranked the Persian Gulf nation as being the least peaceful country. In the 18 years the IEP has compiled the index, the country has fallen 24 places.

Yemen is also the least peaceful out of the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), having seen deteriorations in the GPI categories of violent demonstrations, political instability and neighboring countries relations. The IEP says:

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, more than 4.5 million Yemenis are displaced, and 21.6 million people require aid, illustrating just how dire the humanitarian crisis is there.