Violence has cost the world $14 trillion

London: The cost of violence around the world reached a record $14.3 trillion in 2014, equivalent to the combined economies of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, a global security report said on Wednesday.

The divide between the most and least peaceful regions deepened with many Middle Eastern and African countries sinking further into violence, according to research by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace.

Syria ranked as the least peaceful country in the 2015 Global Peace Index, while Libya saw the most severe deterioration. Iceland remained the most peaceful. India, too, has deteriorated by 6 per cent in peace largely due to deteriorations in the indicators measuring deaths from external conflict, political terror and perceptions of criminality.

“The cost behind the violence has been largely associated with the increase of deaths in conflict, the ongoing economic consequences of conflicts in the countries where they’re occurring and also the increased cost associated with the displaced people,” IEP founder Steve Killelea said. The cost of supporting refugees and internally displaced people has increased by 267 per cent since 2008 to $128 billion as the numbers of uprooted people topped 50 million — the highest level since World War II.

However, it is expenses related to military, police forces and dealing with homicides that have had the highest impact on costs, accounting for more than 68 per cent of the total, said the study. Despite conflict in Ukraine, Europe continues to experience historic levels of peace, with decrease in homicides and withdrawal of forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.