UK Peace Index highlights rate of fall in violent crime
Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than many other countries in Western Europe, researchers say.
The UK Peace Index, from the Institute for Economics and Peace, found UK homicides per 100,000 people had fallen from 1.99 in 2003, to one in 2012.
The UK was more peaceful overall, it said, with the reasons for it varied.
The index found Broadland, Norfolk, to be the most peaceful local council area but Lewisham, London, to be the least.
The research by the international non-profit research organisation comes as a separate study by Cardiff University suggests the number of people treated in hospital in England and Wales after violent incidents fell by 14% in 2012.
Some 267,291 people required care - 40,706 fewer than in 2011 - according to a sample of 54 hospital units, its report said.
BBC home editor Mark Easton called it the "riddle of peacefulness" and said the fall in violence was "perhaps a symptom of a new morality".
"We are less tolerant of violence in all forms," our correspondent added.
For its inaugural index, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which defined peace as "the absence of violence or fear of violence", used Home Office data on crime, such as public disorder offences and weapons crime, and police officer numbers.
It found the violent crime rate in the UK fell faster than the European average and was down by about one quarter - from 1,255 per 100,000 people in 2003, to 933 in 2012.
These reductions came despite a 6% drop in the number of police officers per 100,000 people, it said.
In Broadland - an area which includes three market towns, Acle, Aylsham and Reepham as well as part of the Norfolk Broads, and which has a population of about 125,000 people - eight violent crimes were recorded for 2012.
Its average overall crime rate for the decade was 323 per 100,000 people - about a third of the national average.
The five most peaceful local authority areas, which also included Three Rivers, in Hertfordshire, South Cambridgeshire, East Dorset and Maldon, in Essex, recorded a combined total of 24 homicides over the decade.
Broadland resident Paul Lancaster, who lives in Rackheath, told the BBC it was a "rural, very well-to-do area". "I feel very safe in Broadland," he said.
Lewisham, meanwhile, had a homicide rate of 2.5 in 2012 - two-and-a-half times the national average.
The year 2011 was the borough's worst in the decade for the actual number of homicides - defined by researchers as murder, manslaughter and infanticide - with 11.
All five of the least peaceful local authority areas were London boroughs - the others being Lambeth, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
Mark Easton said that while Lewisham, an area scarred by gang violence, was found to be the least peaceful area, overall the capital was markedly more peaceful than it was 10 years ago, with some of the biggest drops in some types of violent crime.
The capital's rate of homicides was far lower than in New York, Amsterdam, Brussels and Prague, he added.
Of the UK's "urban areas", the index found Glasgow, with a murder rate of double the national average, to be the least peaceful and Cardiff and Swansea, with 60% less violent crime than Glasgow, the most peaceful.
Sheffield, Nottingham and Leeds came second, third and fourth respectively behind Cardiff in the urban areas peacefulness ranking.
The IEP's report said that 80% of the 343 local authority areas it had evaluated had seen at least a 10% improvement in their peace over the past decade.
"This is the fastest decline in violence of any country in Europe," it said.
"Cross-checking Home Office and Eurostat data against a number of metrics, such as hospital admissions, the UKPI shows that this dramatic fall is not a blip in police reporting - the UK really is becoming more peaceful.
"Reasons for this fall in violence are varied, however one of the more likely reasons, often overlooked, is the substantial improvement in police practices particularly related to the adoption of advanced technologies.
"Other factors which have had an impact in reducing violence include an aging population, decreasing alcohol consumption and, finally, rising real wages, supported by the introduction of the minimum wage."
UK's a peaceful place
UK's a peaceful place
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”