United Nations: Nordic Countries Best Place to Live in the World
The Nordic countries have the best standard of living in the world, as per the Human Development Report published by the United Nations

Best Standard of Living in the World

The Nordic countries are overall the best countries to live in the world, according to the Human Development Report which is published annually by the United Nations. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland figure among the top countries on the UN index because of their high levels of education, democracy, income and public health.

The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual independent study commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme and published into more than a dozen languages. The HDR measures the wealth of nations by the standard of living of their population and considers several indexes related to life expectancy, education, economy and environment.

Economists, philosophers and political leaders have long emphasised human wellbeing as the sole purpose of economic development. A successful community is not that which has one wealthy member and nine living in poverty, but that one where all members of the community have succeeded in achieving a high standard of living. The HDR measures whether the national income of a nation is creating an environment for its people to enjoy a life with good health services, political freedoms, security against crime, greater access to education and a satisfying leisure time.


Norway tops the index for third consecutive year

The Nordic countries have always performed very well in the United Nations' HDR, all figuring within the top 15 countries on the index. Among the Scandinavians, Norway has become the best performing Nordic country in the report after ranking number one in 2001, 2002 and 2003, heading the Development index for the third consecutive year.

In Norway, 99 percent of the population can read and write, there are 413 doctors per 100,000 citizens, the average life expectancy is 78.4 years, and the Norwegians are even wealthier than ever before. The famous Nordic social welfare state remains efficient and provides the Norwegians with a first class health, education and benefits system, which is financed through their taxes.

Norway has also topped the lists for being among the most generous countries in the world in terms of foreign aid donations on a per capita basis, and for their green environmentally friendly policies.

However the Norwegian society is the most developed in the world, the average Norwegian is still known to complain nonetheless. The current discussion topics in Norway range among the waiting lists for medical care, the shortage of nursing homes and the cuts in police and school budgets.


Quality of Life, Income, Education and Life Expectancy

If we would only focus on per capita income statistics, we would perhaps be surprised to hear that the inhabitants of the small central European nation of Luxembourg are the wealthiest in the world, with an average salary of $53,780. The average salary in Norway is $45,000 but the Nordic countries are above all known for being an egalitarian society; of the seventeen richest countries in the world, Sweden ranks first as having the fewest people living in poverty and the fewest illiterate people, while other rich countries such us the United States have the the most, showing that stark inequality persists even in middle or high-income countries.

Education is one of the pillars of the Nordic society. Illiteracy is practically non existent from Iceland to Finland, and the free national education systems breed some of the most skilled workforce in the world. Moreover, when it comes to equality between women and men, all the five Nordic countries top the index and score again the highest; Iceland takes the lead in terms of emancipation, followed by Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland on the fifth position.

You may now be convinced that people in the Nordic countries live well, but they also live long. The HDR averages life expectancy on the Nordic countries between the 77.7 years of Finland and the 78.9 of Norway. Japan has the longest life expectancy with the average Japanese living up to of 81.3 years.


The rich are richer and the poor are poorer

If the average Norwegian lives 78 years, a child born in Sierra Leone will probaly die before reaching the age of 35. Sierra Leone's average life expectancy is 38.3 years, this is half that in Norway. If all Norwegians are literate and enjoy free education payed by the State, at the other extreme, only 36% of adults in Sierra Leone can read. The average salary in Norway is $45,000, but the average per capita income in Sierra Leone is only $470.

In fact, if the best places to live in the world are found in Europe and north America, the 25 countries at the bottom of the HDR index are all in Africa. Overall child life expectation, adult literacy rate and many other advances have been made in the last 30 years, yet we still see unacceptable levels of deprivation in people's lives across the world: illiteracy, pollution and poor sanitation, poverty and hunger...

Millions of people from the Scandinavian countries have emigrated out of their homelands during the last centuries to escape poverty and war. Today, the Nordic nations are prosperous and stable countries which have made impressive gains in the developing world and have demonstrated the possibility of eradicating poverty. When it comes to building a prosperous society, the Nordic countries should be taken a role model for the developing and developed nations of the world.

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