Fragile States Index 2025
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5 Countries with the Highest Fragile States Index
- The Fragile States Index tracks twelve key political, social and economic indicators and more than 100 sub-indicators to determine the overall degree of stability and fragility in a country. Lower scores indicate greater stability and are preferable.
- According to the Fund for Peace, fragile states may display a wide range of characteristics, including the following:
- The loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force
- The erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions
- An inability to provide reasonable public services
- The inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.
The Fragile States Index is a report released annually by the Fund for Peace and the magazine Foreign Policy since 2005. The primary purpose of this report is to assess the vulnerability of sovereign states throughout the nation. All sovereign states that are members of the United Nations are included in the report when enough data is available with the exception of Taiwan, Kosovo, Western Sahara, Northern Cyprus, and the Palestinian Territories.
The report uses indicators across four categories to determine if a state is vulnerable to conflict or collapse. The categories that are assessed include: Cohesion, Economic, Political, and Social. There are 12 different indicators used to determine the vulnerability of the states. These factors include human rights, public services, demographic pressures, refugees and internally displaced persons, and security. The higher a state is ranked on the list, the more vulnerable it is. According to the 2024 Fragile States Index, Somalia was the most vulnerable with a score of 111.3. Immediately behind were the state of Sudan with a score of 109.3 and South Sudan with a score of 109.
Top 10 Most Vulnerable States in the 2024 Index
Country | Fragile States Index 2024 |
|---|---|
| Somalia | 111.3 |
| Sudan | 109.3 |
| South Sudan | 109.0 |
| Syria | 108.1 |
| DR Congo | 106.7 |
| Yemen | 106.6 |
| Afghanistan | 103.9 |
| Central African Republic | 103.9 |
| Haiti | 103.5 |
| Chad | 102.7 |
On the flip side, states with the lowest scores were found to be the least vulnerable and less at risk for conflict or collapse. The top state based on the 2024 Index was Norway with a score of 12.7. Finland came in second place with a score of 14.3, while Iceland came in third with a score of 15.2.
10 Least Vulnerable States in the 2024 Index
The states that appear at the bottom of the Index of 2024 and are thus less vulnerable to conflict or collapse include:
Country | Fragile States Index 2024 |
|---|---|
| Norway | 12.7 |
| Finland | 14.3 |
| Iceland | 15.2 |
| Denmark | 15.9 |
| New Zealand | 15.9 |
| Switzerland | 16.2 |
| Canada | 18.6 |
| Ireland | 18.6 |
| Luxembourg | 18.7 |
| Netherlands | 19.5 |
