How Northern Ireland Compares with the Rest of the UK and Ireland<\/p>\n
On the indicators that allow a direct comparison with the rest of the UK since 2019, Northern Ireland matches or exceeds the British average on the social, equity and material outcomes that capture how people experience everyday peace. It falls behind on the economic-dynamism indicators that determine long-term productive capacity, namely research investment, foreign-capital intensity and output per capita.<\/p>\n
Against the Republic of Ireland , the picture partly reverses. On the smaller set of like-for-like indicators available, Northern Ireland trails the Republic of Ireland on most measures, and the youth-transition and gender pay gap outcomes on which it leads within the UK become shortfalls when measured against the Republic of Ireland instead.<\/p>\n
A Strong Positive Peace Position Does Not Guarantee Low Violence<\/p>\n
At the level of the 11 Local Government Districts, a strong Positive Peace position does not guarantee a strong negative peace position, and the two measures do not track each other. Belfast records above-average performance on several of the structural foundations of peace, yet it also concentrates the highest share of recorded violence among all council areas. Derry and Strabane shows the opposite pattern: it lags on several Positive Peace indicators, yet it has recorded some of the largest improvements on violence-related measures over the same period.<\/p>\n
This is because each council area\u2019s social composition shapes negative peace and Positive Peace through different channels, so a district\u2019s standing on one measure is not a reliable guide to its standing on the other. The areas where peace is least consolidated are consistently those marked by persistent deprivation and entrenched low trust in institutions.<\/p>\n
The report is careful to note that the relationship between the two measures is not one-directional. Falling violence may build the structural conditions of Positive Peace as much as those conditions sustain the fall in violence; the Index measures the presence of these conditions, not the direction of cause. The path from structural improvement to durable peace runs through generations of social and political change, not annual policy cycles.<\/p>\n
Four Priorities for Building Peace<\/p>\n
Drawing on the Index results, the report sets out four long-term priorities. These describe a direction of travel rather than near-term targets, and are as follows: first, strengthen public confidence in the institutions people rely on; second, support a stronger domestic economic and research base, so that gains in skills and infrastructure are retained locally; third, create more shared spaces and services that bring communities together in everyday life; and fourth, widen access to opportunity for all, especially where deprivation and division coincide.<\/p>\n
Taken together, the findings suggest that Northern Ireland\u2019s peace, nearly three decades after the 1998 Agreement, rests on a firmer foundation against violence than it did in 2019, but on a foundation of institutions, trust and community relations that has moved only marginally in that time.<\/p>\n