Bangladesh is the third most peaceful country in South Asia ahead of India and Pakistan, according to Global Peace Index 21 released on Thursday.

In this global assessment Bangladesh has ranked the 91st most peaceful country with an overall score of 2.068, up seven notches from last year.

Although in South Asia the country was behind Bhutan and Nepal, it performed significantly better than the neighbouring India and Pakistan.

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Bhutan and Nepal remained the most peaceful country in South Asia with their global peace ranking at 22nd and 85th respectively.

India moved up two spots from its previous year's peace ranking to become the 135th peaceful country and 5th in South Asia.

Pakistan ranked 150th globally and 6th in the region while Afghanistan remained the least peaceful country for the fourth consecutive year.

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Bangladesh replaced Sri Lanka as the third most peaceful country in South Asia as the island nation recorded a massive deterioration in their peace ranking after relegating to 95th position in Global Peace Index from last year’s 19th.

The Institute for Economics and Peace released the 15th edition of the Global Peace Index on Thursday, ranking 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

The countries are ranked from most peaceful to least peaceful on the basis of safety and security, militarisation, and frequency of ongoing conflicts.

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Iceland remains the world's most peaceful country, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal and Slovenia.