Remember those famous, all too insightful words of gumbooted Kiwi bloke persona Fred Dagg?

Well, if you’re in need of some reminding as to just how lucky we are, mate, New Zealand has just been named the world’s most peaceful nation.

The land of the long white cloud jumped ahead three spots in the Global Peace Index in 2009, knocking last year’s leader, Iceland, off the top spot.

Now in its third year, the index defines peace as “the absence of violence,” and looks at 23 indicators of peacefulness across 144 countries. Internally, these include homicides, the percentage of the population in jail, the availability of guns, and level of organized crime. External indicators include the size of the military, the exports and imports of arms, battlefield deaths, United Nations peacekeeping contributions, and relations with neighbouring states.

New Zealand scored highly because of its stable government, high level of respect for human rights and relatively small defence spending. The world’s major military powers scored poorly, with Russia at 136th and China 74th.

The US was 83rd, due to its enormous military and the fact it still jails a higher proportion of its population than any of the other 143 nations in the Global Peace Index.