Conflict deaths at highest level this century
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Aug 2023
Conflict deaths are higher than they have ever been this century according to the 17th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). The new GPI published in June 2023 revealed that over 238,000 people were killed in conflicts in 2022.
The number of conflict deaths almost doubled in 2022 compared to 2021. War caused a 13% loss of global GDP. The new survey said that the average level of global peacefulness had sunk for the ninth year in a row, with conflict deaths topping the previous global peak reached in 2014 during the Syrian civil war.
The dramatic increase in death rates was mostly driven by Russian president Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, where 83,000 people were killed in 2022, though the bloodiest conflict was in Ethiopia, where 100,000 people lost their lives.
The GPI evaluates every country in the world based on 23 indicators, broken down into three domains: Ongoing domestic and international conflict; societal safety and security and militarisation, which reflect both social peace (crime statistics, the number of homicides) and a country’s conflicts at home and abroad.
The report found that altogether, the average level of global peacefulness, as measured by the index, had deteriorated by 0.42%.
Institute for Economics and Peace founder and executive chairman Steve Killelea said, 91% of the world’s countries are now involved in some kind of conflict compared to 58 in 2008. A