New findings from the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) reveal a sharp decline in the Dominican Republic’s standing in the 2026 edition of the widely cited Global Peace Index (GPI), a comprehensive annual ranking measuring peace and stability across 163 nations worldwide.
Last year, the Caribbean nation held the 79th position in the index; in 2026, it has dropped 10 places to land at 89th overall. The country’s aggregate peace score shifted from 1.996 to 2.038, a change that aligns with the GPI’s scoring framework, where higher numerical values correspond to lower levels of systemic peace.
Across the North and Central American region, the Dominican Republic recorded the most severe single-year decline in peacefulness, with an overall 4.7 percent reduction in its peace score over the 12-month measurement period. The driving force behind this dramatic drop is the index’s “Ongoing Conflict” metric, which saw its score worsen from 1.604 to 1.916 — an almost 19.5 percent deterioration in performance. IEP researchers documented 40 violent conflict-related fatalities within the Dominican Republic’s borders during 2025, the vast majority of which were tied directly to organized criminal activity and inter-gang disputes.
Despite this alarming single-year shift, the IEP was quick to emphasize that the latest decline does not automatically signal a long-term upward trend in lethal violence across the country. Over the past 10 years, the Dominican Republic has cut its national homicide rate by more than half, marking significant progress in curbing violent crime over the longer term.
Other core metrics measured by the GPI also showed incremental but notable improvements for the nation. Its score for Security and Social Protection improved from 2.538 to 2.414, while its Militarization score also saw a small positive decline from 1.588 to 1.577 — both changes signaling greater peacefulness in those domains. Unfortunately, these gains were not large enough to offset the steep downturn in the Ongoing Conflict category, leading to the overall ranking drop.
The decline has also reshaped the Dominican Republic’s standing among its regional peers. In 2025, it ranked third among all North and Central American countries, trailing only Canada and Costa Rica. This year, it has fallen to seventh place, sitting behind Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, and Guatemala in regional peacefulness rankings.
Unlike narrow crime-focused rankings, the GPI constructs its assessments using 23 distinct qualitative and quantitative indicators, grouped into three core pillars: security and social protection, ongoing domestic and international conflict, and militarization. This framework creates a holistic evaluation of national peace, stability, and conflict exposure, rather than simply measuring homicide or crime rates in isolation.
For the Dominican Republic, the 2026 GPI results paint a mixed overall portrait: while the nation has delivered substantial long-term progress in reducing homicide rates and strengthening core security frameworks, a sudden, sharp deterioration in conflict linked to organized crime has pulled down its overall global and regional ranking substantially.