This post was originally published on Defender Network
The United States now ranks 128th out of 163 countries on the Global Peace Index, placing it among the least peaceful nations in the world.
For Black Houstonians, these numbers aren’t abstract. They mirror the reality of neighborhoods where homicides are concentrated, where Black residents are six times more likely than whites to die by gun violence in Texas, and where safety is too often the exception rather than the rule.
According to the 2025 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), global peacefulness continues to fall, with many indicators at their worst since World War II. The U.S. ranks toward the bottom third of the 163 countries measured, driven down by high militarization, domestic conflict, safety and security deficits and rising political polarization.
At home in Texas, the data vividly reinforce these global markers. In 2023, 4,561 people died from gun violence in Texas. Among those, 1,706 were homicides and Black Texans are over six times as likely to die by gun homicide than their white counterparts. In Harris County, the firearm fatality rate is 16.4 per 100,000 people, the highest in the greater Houston region.
Key Findings
- Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria, and Switzerland are the five most peaceful countries in the world in 2025.
- Peace has deteriorated every year since 2014. Over this period, 100 countries deteriorated and only 62 improved.
- Canada is the most peaceful country in the North American region
- Global economic stagnation, increasing debt and the weaponisation of economic interdependence via trade wars are key factors shaping the economic landscape of geopolitics in the 21st century.
- The declining share of the US dollar in global reserves and widespread exploration of Central Bank Digital Currencies could further fragment the international payments system.
- The United States spends more annually on its military than any other country, followed by China, which spends less than half as much. North Korea has the highest per capita spending and has the highest military spending as a percentage of its GDP.
What Black Houstonians Are Saying
“We’re overworked, underpaid and over-incarcerated,” said Durell Douglas, executive director of Houston Justice. “That’s not a peaceful existence.”
From overcrowded jails to militarized policing, Houstonians describe conditions that mirror the factors dragging America down the global scale: High homicide rates, rampant gun violence, and a carceral system that disproportionately impacts Black residents.
Douglas spends every Wednesday inside Harris County Jail, where he sees what the index’s numbers mean up close.
“The jail population looks like me,” he said. “That tells you peace is not real for us. And it all ties back to economics, opportunity, equity, whether families can simply exist.”
Budget priorities, he adds, reveal why the U.S. ranks so low. “When you look at all the things that could be funded, childcare, public education, job skills training and then compare it to U.S. military spending, it’s no surprise we’re at the bottom of the peace index.”
Marcus Esther, a Houston criminal defense attorney, says he doesn’t need an international index to tell him the U.S. is struggling with peace. He sees it every day in overcrowded jails, young clients caught with guns, and families torn apart by a system that punishes poverty.
“Our jails are overcrowded to the point where people are being sent to other counties and even other states,” Esther said. “And as a defense attorney, I see young people every day caught with guns, many of them under 21, often struggling with poverty or addiction. That’s exactly what the index is measuring.”
Esther stresses that violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Low incomes and scarce resources also mark many Houston neighborhoods with high Black populations.
“If you don’t have childcare, if you don’t have food, if you don’t feel safe in your own neighborhood, that instability breeds crime,” he said.
Policing, he adds, deepens the distrust.
“We have a long history of being over-policed and under-protected,” Esther explained. “Too often, Black residents are stopped not because of what they’ve done but because of who they are. Once you’re in the system, high bail and lack of funding keep you there.”
RoShawn C. Evans, co-founder and organizing director of Pure Justice, ties Houston’s struggles directly to how public money is spent.
“In other countries that rank higher on peace, governments prioritize people’s wellbeing,” Evans said. “Here, we prioritize making money off the backs of Black and brown communities.”
He points to Harris County’s $275 million budget deficit and decisions that siphon resources away from social services. “They’re willing to give law enforcement another raise while cutting eviction protections, early childhood development, mental health services, and education,” Evans explained. “That makes communities more dangerous. It forces people into survival mode.”
Black residents make up about 23% of Houston’s population, yet they make up a disproportionate percentage of the Harris County jail population. Evans says bail reform showed that change is possible, reducing jail numbers significantly before new state and federal policies rolled them back.
Breaking the Cycle
Houston’s Black community leaders emphasize that solutions are already being built from the ground up. Here are some of the initiatives they highlighted:
- Expungement clinics – Help people clear criminal records to access jobs, housing and education.
- Service-based organizations – From the Houston Food Bank to the NAACP and the Houston Area Urban League, groups providing essentials like food, housing assistance and legal support.
- Neighborhood groups – Smaller organizations such as the Acres Homes Community Action Group that connect directly with residents through grassroots education and resource-sharing.
- 100 Black Men of Metropolitan Houston – Provides mentorship and guidance to young Black men, connecting them to positive role models.
- Project Hope – A diversion and rehabilitation program that offers alternatives to incarceration.
- Community Violence Intervention programs – Initiatives targeting Houston’s highest-risk zip codes, designed to reduce shootings and build trust between residents and public safety advocates.
- Policy advocacy for rebalanced budgets – Pushing Harris County to shift resources away from policing and incarceration toward housing, education, mental health and food security.
- Bail reform advocacy – Highlighting that prior reforms cut the jail population nearly in half, proving systemic change is possible when policy prioritizes fairness.
- Community organizing through Pure Justice – Mobilizing residents to hold leaders accountable and to reimagine public safety through investments in people, not punishment.