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Living Standards Today
Human Development Index
HDI is a combined statistic of GDP per head, adult literacy, life expectancy,
average years of schooling and adult literacy to give an estimate of a country’s
development and hence the quality of life for it’s citizens. It was first
published by the UN Development Programme in 1990.
Going by the latest figures, these are the top ten countries as far as quality
of life is concerned:
Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, United States,
Japan, Switzerland.
Lowest Infant Mortality Rate
Probability of dying between birth and exactly one year of age per 1000 live
births is expressed as infant mortality rate. The latest figures, from 2003, has
the following ten countries as the countries with the least infant mortality:
Singapore, Japan, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Andorra, Hong Kong, Belgium,
Germany, Netherlands.
Global competitiveness
Global competitiveness of countries have been assessed based on criteria
covering the openness of an economy, the role of the government, the development
of financial markets, the quality of infrastructure, technology, business
management and judicial and political institutions and labor-market flexibility.
It shows the ability of a country to achieve sustained high rates of growth of
GDP per head. The top ten countries in global competitiveness (2004) are: United
States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Finland,
Luxembourg, Ireland.
Highest Health Spending
Highest health spending is calculated for each nation as a percentage of their
GDP. The top ten countries that spend the highest percentage of their GDP on
healthcare as per the latest figures (2003) are: United States, Lebanon,
Cambodia, Switzerland, Uruguay, Germany, Suriname, France, Argentina, Canada.
Highest Education Spending
Highest education spending is calculated for each nation as a percentage of
their GDP. The top ten countries that spend the highest percentage of their GDP
on education as per the latest figures (2003) are: Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Yemen,
Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Denmark, Namibia, Malaysia, Sweden, Estonia.
Of the ten countries showing the highest quality of life, five are among the ten
countries showing the least infant mortality rate, four are among the ten
countries showing the greatest global competitiveness, three are among the ten
countries who spent the most part of their GDP on healthcare and one is among
those countries who have spent the greater part of their GDP on education. It is
clear where the nation’s focus ought to be in order to attain a higher standard
of living. Securing the life of children above all else is the shortest way to
improving living standards and curbing poverty.
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