Canada Again Tops U.N. List for Good Living
For the seventh consecutive year, Canada ranks overall as the best place in the world to live. But if you are a woman, you are better off in Scandinavia, according to the U.N. Human Development Report 2000, released Thursday.
Norway is second in overall rankings, followed by the United States, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan and Britain. And rounding out the top 20, Finland is 11th, followed by France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand.
At the other end of the scale, the 10 countries providing the fewest services to their people, from the worst, are: Sierra Leone, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Chad, Central African Republic and Mali.
The survey ranked 174 nations according to income, health care, life expectancy and educational levels.
When progress for women is factored in, Canada slips to eighth place and the United States ranks 13th in the so-called “gender empowerment index,” which measures the number of women in parliament, government and professional jobs and their average earnings compared with men.
The top 10 countries in that category are: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Belgium.
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