Norway has world's best quality of life, says UN

Norway has the best quality of life in the world, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which unveiled its annual Human Development Index (HDI) yesterday. The report ranks countries according to various health, education, and standard-of-living indicators, highlighting the global discrepancies in overall quality of life.

The 2009 HDI report ranked 182 countries. All five of the Nordic countries ranked in the top 16. Iceland was ranked 3rd (though based on statistics from 2007, before the country's economic troubles), Sweden 7th, Finland 12th, and Denmark 16th. The United States came in 13th. In last place was the African nation of Niger.

"A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50 years, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway," the UNDP stated. "Furthermore, the differences in per capita income are huge. For every dollar earned per person in Niger, US$85 are earned in Norway."

The Nordic countries ranked at the very top of the list for the gender empowerment measure (GEM), a subset of criteria measuring women's participation in economic and political life. Indicators include the percentage of female legislators, senior managers and officials, and professional and technical workers, together with the income disparity between genders. In GEM, Sweden ranked 1st, Norway 2nd, Finland 3rd, Denmark 4th, and Iceland 8th.

Click here for the complete HDI rankings and links to individual country fact sheets