SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 18 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

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SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

The 2025 Global Peace Index indicates that global peacefulness has generally shown a:

(a)Consistent upward trend
(b)Gradual downward trend
(c)Significant improvement
(d)Stable and unchanging state

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The Global Peace Index 2025, the 19th edition from the Institute for Economics & Peace, finds that average country peacefulness deteriorated by 0.36 per cent over the year.

The report calls this the 13th deterioration in the last 17 years. The average country score is 5.4 per cent worse than at the index's start in 2008.

Small annual falls that add up make a gradual downward trend → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Consistent upward trend — The direction is wrong. Peacefulness fell by 0.36 per cent in the 2025 index, the 13th deterioration in 17 years, so the trend is down, not up.
(c)
Significant improvement — There was no improvement on average. The 2025 GPI records a 0.36 per cent deterioration, with 87 countries less peaceful and 74 more peaceful.
(d)
Stable and unchanging state — The index moved, and downward. Average peacefulness fell by 0.36 per cent in 2025 and is 5.4 per cent worse than in 2008, so it has not been stable.

Concept

The Global Peace Index (GPI) is published by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). The 2025 edition ranks 163 independent states and territories, covering 99.7 per cent of the world's population.

It uses 23 indicators in three domains: Societal Safety and Security, Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and Militarisation. A lower score means a more peaceful country.

The 2025 report counts 59 active state-based conflicts, the most since the end of the Second World War. Yet the yearly fall in average peacefulness was small, 0.36 per cent, which is why 'gradual' fits better than a word implying a sharp change.

Key facts

Average country peacefulness deteriorated by 0.36 per cent in the 2025 GPI.
Iceland is the most peaceful country in the 2025 GPI, a position it has held since 2008.
Russia is the least peaceful country in the 2025 GPI, for the first time.
India ranks 115th of 163 in the 2025 GPI.

Study next

The Global Terrorism Index, also published by the Institute for Economics & PeaceThe three GPI domains and what each measures

Common traps

Reading a higher GPI score as more peaceful: on this index a lower score is better.
Choosing 'Significant improvement' because some indicators improved: homicide rates and perceptions of criminality did improve, but the overall average fell.

This item asks for the direction of the 2025 index's headline finding, not a rank or a score.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 156 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.