After months of street protests and then a military coup, Thailand remains “one of the least peaceful countries of the world” according to the newly released Global Peace Index and now rests just four notches above Myanmar.
Again ranked 126th out of 162 nations, Thailand is 16th out of 19 countries in Asia, ahead of only Myanmar (130th globally), the Philippines (141) and North Korea (153).
The annual index, released Wednesday by the Australia-based Vision of Humanity's Institute for Economics and Peace, assesses a nation's proclivity for peace based on factors of social security, militarisation, and the degree of conflict at home and abroad.
Iceland tops the 2015 index as the world's most peaceful country, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore earned the best mark and 24th overall, followed by Malaysia at 28th. Laos slipped out of the top 40 to No. 41 this year, followed by Indonesia (46) and Vietnam (56), which also saw a large drop from 2014. Cambodia slipped five places to No. 111.
Myanmar, where armed conflict continues in its north and a refugee problem flaring among its Rohingya minority, improved six places to No. 130 and now is just slightly behind Thailand.
"High rates of political instability, violent demonstrations, political terror, and terrorism activity have meant Thailand is ranked among the least peaceful countries of the world, and has not seen notable variation in its score," Vision of Humanity said in a summary on the kingdom.
It estimates violence cost the country US$50.1 billion, or $748 per person, an equivalent of 5% of Thailand's gross domestic product.
The country was assigned a score of 1.4 out of five for "militarisation", 2.9 for "society and security, and 2.1 for "domestic and international conflict". Only the latter of the three scores showed any improvement from the 2014 survey.
Its worst detailed scores came for "incarceration", with Thailand's prisons scoring a near-worst 4.5 out of five, "impact of terrorism", which was scored 4.0 due to the southern conflict, and 3.5 out of the five for "violent crime".
The best scores, all 1.0, were for control of foreign weapons, military personnel and external conflicts.
Conflicts in Syria again pushed that country to the bottom of the annual peace rankings, with Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan and the Central African Republic closely behind as the worst least peaceful countries.
The UK was ranked the 39th most peaceful nation, up from 47th last year. Australia ranked ninth overall and the US moved up to 94th from No. 101.