Posted on 07/15/2004 9:40:30 PM PDT by El Conservador
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands ranked as the best five countries to live in but Africa's quality of life plummeted because of AIDS (news - web sites), said a U.N. report released on Thursday.
The United States was ranked in eighth place, a drop of one position from 2003 in the report that rates not only per-capita income but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.
The Human Development Index, prepared by the U.N. Development Program, is issued annually and includes every country for which statistics are available.
Iraq (news - web sites), Afghanistan (news - web sites), North Korea (news - web sites), and Liberia (news - web sites) were among nations not included because of lack of data.
Norway has led the list for the past four years.
Aside from the overall index, the report produces indicators on women's equality, income inequality and consumption, poverty and other categories that countries use to measure development. In Canada, for example, the index has been used in advertisements to attract business.
The industrialized nations as usual were in the top 20, their ratings close to one another. Belgium was in sixth place, followed by Iceland, the United States, Japan, Ireland, Switzerland, Britain, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, France, Denmark, New Zealand, Germany and Spain.
At the bottom of the list for the seventh year was Sierra Leone, emerging from a decade of civil war. Right above it were Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Burundi.
The world's newest nation, East Timor (news - web sites), was included for the first time and ranked 158th out of 177 countries.
In Africa, the AIDS crisis reduced the average life expectancy in many countries to 40 years or less, making it the biggest factor in the decline of overall human development indicators, the report said. In comparison, the average life expectancy in Norway was 79 years.
At least 20 nations suffered development reversals since 1990, 13 of them in Africa: Angola, Central African Republic, Lesotho, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the report said.
"The AIDS crisis cripples states at all levels because the disease attacks people in their most productive years," said Mark Malloch Brown, head of U.N. Development Program.
In Latin American and Caribbean nations, Barbados again headed the list, in 29th place. Argentina ranked 34th, Chile, 43; Costa Rica, 45; Uruguay, 46; Bahamas, 51; Cuba, 52; Mexico, 53; Venezuela, 68. Surprisingly, Brazil dropped to 72nd place, one above Colombia, compared to last year when it ranked 65th.
In Asia, Hong Kong was in 23rd place and Singapore in 25th, South Korea (news - web sites) in 28th, Thailand, 76; Philippines, 83; China, 94; India 127; Bangladesh 138 and Pakistan 142.
In the Middle East, Israel led the list in 22nd place, followed by Cyprus in 30th place, Bahrain, 40; Kuwait, 44; Qatar, 47; United Arab Emirates, 49; Libya, 58; Oman 74; Saudi Arabia, 77; Lebanon, 80; Jordan, 90; Tunisia, 92; Palestinian territories 102; Syria, 106; Algeria, 108; Egypt, 120; Morocco, 125 and Yemen, 149.
The 285-page report can be found on the Web at http://hdr.undp.org.
i.e., those countries with oppressive taxation and gigantic welfare states.
Plummeted? From what?
As a young teen, I thought Norway was a great place to live. I'd like to take a trip there someday.
Never wanted to go to Africa.
Any place that has only six weeks of summer wouldn't make my top 1,000 places to live.
I seriously wonder how they did this study. First, is per-capita income measured on a purchasing power parity basis, or just at current foreign exchange rates?
Educational levels is fairly nebulous, especially considering that the United States has a large number of immigrants who usually aren't that well educated. Same with health care and life expectancy: immigrants are going to skew our numbers down somewhat.
Is Norway a better place to live? I honestly don't know, as I've never been there. But if you aren't Norwegian or American, but instead have some ambition and live in another country, where do you think you'd want to go?
does this mean we can send all the illegals to Norway for their drivers licenses?
Yes, for one thing, there's a rather short boating season in Norway. That alone would be off-putting to some people.
I would pick a tropical island.
FootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFootyFooty
No wonder so many Norwegians emigrated to France, Britain, America, Spain, Africa and other places around 1,000 years ago or so...
read later bump
Dagnabbit, ya beat me to it! I had it all ready to go, and you guys go and post it as I'm setting it up.
I guess I'll have to speed up my HTML "skills" (HAH!).
My personal fave is the "live" version of Kenya.
"Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands ranked as the best five countries to live in ...."
Is it not an coincedense that these countries are also the WHITEST countries of the world, with relatively low population to deal with and with little or no minorities to "gum up" their nicely constructed welfare state?
Must be nice......
Yeah, the lion has a nice rack.
Big can, tho.
<|:)~
She's just "built for comfort". Kinda like the difference between a Hayabusa and a full-dress E-Glide, ya know.
I'm not familiar with the live version. Do you have a link? I have seen a live-action Badger, but I thought it could have been done a little better. Not bad, though.
Ahh, never mind. I see it on the main Toon page.
I have a friend in Norway, who says that the sun is up 24 hours a day, so I say, let someone else have it, and not me.
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