Norway’s six-year tenure as the world’s most desirable place to live has come to an end. According to an annual table published by the UN, Iceland has knocked it into second place, with Australia, Canada and Ireland filling out the top five.

The UN’s Human Development Report 2007/8 rates countries according to their human development index, a statistical analysis of factors that influence quality of life, such as life expectancy, literacy rates, enrolment to educational establishments and per capita income.

Out of the 175 UN-member countries measured, Iceland took first place because its 300,000 inhabitants can expect to live 81.5 years, adult literacy is high and the combined enrolment rate for primary, secondary, and advanced university degrees is 95.4 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, the bottom 24 nations on the list are all in Africa, with Sierra Leone performing the worst: life expectancy is 41.8 years, while the literacy rate is 34.8 per cent. In ten of the ‘low human development’ category, two in five children won’t live beyond the age of 40.


February 2008