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Norway is not the Most Comfortable Country for Living anymore

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Travel Articles >> Ratings Travel Articles >> Locations >> Europe >> Iceland

The United Nations Organization (UNO) has published a yet another world countries’ rating, prepared by its experts. Countries in this rating are allocated not by the wealth or by the spatial quantity, but by the standard of life quality and optimal conditions for the local residents. In the “Human Development report 2007-2008” UNO experts have promulgated the results of their own surveys and the data analysis of other international and intergovernmental funds and organizations.

As evaluation criterion of living standards and welfare of country’s citizens, the experts have chosen quite common ones – the level of GDP per capita, life expectancy, availability of education (on the assumption of the quantity of citizens, received any given qualification or just able to read and write). They also took into consideration common democratic values – the situation considering human rights, right to participate in social life, the freedom of will. The level of social security of citizens of different countries, the indicators of health, cultural development of the population, criminal situation and environmental protection are also important for the researchers.

Altogether 175 member-states of UNO and also Hong-Kong (which has the status of the special administrative district of China) and the Palestinian Authority. 17 more states were not taken into account during the surveys: there is just no necessary data about them. So, the authors managed to generalize data practically from all over the world. The UNO experts are carrying such investigations for already 17 years – beginning from the year 1990. During this time there were some changes in the rating, however, for the first time from the beginning of this century, the rating’s leader – Norway – had to yield the palm to the island state of Iceland. This year Icelanders have powered past the Norwegians in all the indicators, such as the longevity of the citizens, access to knowledge and living standards. The level of life expectancy is one of the highest here – 81 years for women and 67 years for men, and per capita GDP here – is 36.5 thousand dollars a year. Altogether, there are 250 thousand people living in Iceland – it is not much, but the government managed to provide them with the decent standard of life.

By means of what? This small country doesn’t enter European Union – Icelanders themselves think that unification in accordance with requirements and standards of “common European house” is unprofitable for them. The main problem is the existence of quotes for fishery in EU – which is the country’s main economy branch. Another income item is tourism. Foreigners are greatly attracted by the unreal beauty of Iceland’s landscape, the real primeval nature. As told by tourists, Iceland – the westernmost European country with the northernmost world’s capital enraptures once and for all. The local ecology is strictly protected by the government. The first roads were built here only in the beginning of XX century, and even nowadays the air transport is one that is used the most. Formerly the houses of farmers and some citizens were constructed from peat, but now they could only be found in museums. The contemporary Icelanders are living in robust and good-sized houses with smoothly running heating system, which are considered to be the best in the world.

In general, Iceland is quite an expensive country. Almost everything here is imported, and, as on every island, runs into money. The prices for food products, apartments, public services – are very expensive. In fact, Iceland is considered to be the second the most expensive country for tourists after Japan. Tourist agencies are suggesting having at an average 500 dollars for the day of living. Otherwise, you will have to stint yourself. However, the islanders themselves are accustomed to such prices, and, what’s more, are having relevant incomes.

But let’s get back to our rating. Norway, as it was already said is now at the second place. However, northland countries are still entering the first lines of the list, as well as other developed countries. Australia is on the third place, were the level of people receiving education is the highest in the world. Then come Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan Netherlands and France. The United States have taken the 12th place in the rating, Great Britain – the 16th, German is on the 22nd place, Israel – on the 23d. The record-breaker in the GDP level per capita still remains Luxembourg – more than 60 thousand dollars a year per person.

Russia appeared to be on the 67th place and is practically closing the list of highly-developed, as estimated by UNO, states. A year ago they were on the 65th place, moving 3 positions down in comparison with the year 2005. Anyway, from all the CIS countries Russia was outrun only by Belarus – it is on the 64th place in rating. By the way, they managed to rise – last year Belarus was on the 67th place. Baltic states have also entered the list of developed countries – Lithuania is on the 43d place, Estonia on 44th, Latvia on 45th.

In the majority of quickly developing countries the level of welfare was estimated as average. Thus, China is on 81st place and oil Iran – on 94th. As estimated by UNO, the majority of CIS states fall into the category of average ones. Kazakhstan is on the 73d place, Ukraine on 76th, Armenia on 83d, Georgia on 96th, Azerbaijan on 98th. The others didn’t even enter the first hundred. Thus, Turkmenistan is only on 109th place, Moldova is on 111th, Uzbekistan on 113th, Kyrgyzstan on 116th and Tajikistan on 122nd. This Central Asian country remains a stable outsider on the former Soviet Union Territory. The indicators of education level and GDP per capita are the lowest here – 71% and 1.4 thousand dollars respectively.

And, as we might expect, the most uninhabitable countries were declared to be African Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau. In these countries the life expectancy is extremely low – from 40 till 50 years. Not more than 30% of the population can read and write and per capita GDP is less than 1 thousand dollars.

Far and by, world organizations are regularly composing ratings of the countries, estimating them by different criteria. Also, in the year 2006 the international agency ‘State of World Liberty’ has published a rating, showing the level of freedom in different states. Though, the freest country in the world for that moment experts claimed to be… Estonia.

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Article Submitted On: November 28, 2007