180 countries ranked by safety, peace, freedom and LGBT+ equality
Visiting: Highly RecommendedLGBT+ visiting: Recommended
The world's smallest country is one giant masterpiece: St Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, and museum halls that would each anchor a national collection anywhere else. You'll do it in half a day from Rome. Book the earliest slot you can get, dress for a church because it is one, and accept that the crowds are part of the liturgy now.
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.
Vatican City: 0.0
Ranked 1st in the world for the lowest homicide rate.
No homicides recorded — a microstate of roughly 800 residents.
Not covered by the main international homicide datasets.
How peaceful the country is — lower is better.
Vatican City: 1.0
Ranked 1st most peaceful country in the world.
No index ranks the Vatican, so 1.04 is our estimate using the GPI's method — take it loosely: per-capita police and prison indicators are meaningless for a state of about 800 people and were left out.
What remains scores at the floor: no military beyond the ceremonial Swiss Guard, no conflict, and no crime figures to speak of.
Personal and economic freedom — higher is better.
Vatican City: 7.4
Ranked 64th freest country in the world.
No index ranks the Vatican, so 7.42 is our estimate using the HFI's method — take it loosely: size-of-government and market-regulation measures are meaningless for a 900-person church state and were left out.
Day-to-day life (speech, movement, religion) scores 7.32; doing business and owning property, 7.61. Scored from the index's own underlying sources — V-Dem, Freedom House, UNODC, CPJ and World Bank data.
LGBT+ equality in law and daily life — higher is better.
Vatican City: 3.1
Ranked 78th least equal in the world for LGBT+ people.
Ranks behind 59% of the 197 countries scored for LGBT+ equality — 31 out of 100.
The law scores 31 out of 100; no public-opinion data is available.