Norway once again demonstrated the high standard of living of its citizens
The reasons for Norway's repeated success lie both in the country's wealth of oil reserves and in its well-developed social security system and extremely high average wages, which compensate for what is arguably the highest price level in Europe.
Economists again explain Germany's place at the beginning of the third ten in the UN list by the reduced per capita income due to the unification of the western and eastern parts of the country. Nevertheless, Italy, worn out by the division into a 'poor south' and 'rich north,' took a higher place in the ranking, and France, which has not solved even a tenth of the problems with migrant integration, ended up eighth in the UN list.
The major industrial powers took the following places in the quality of life ranking: Japan – 10th, USA – 13th, China – 92nd. Russia found itself in 71st position, Brazil – 75th, India became 134th.
The worst off are citizens of Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Niger – these states close the ranking, occupying positions from 180 to 182. 'A child born in Niger can expect to barely reach his fiftieth birthday, while his peer born in Norway will live thirty years longer,' says the report accompanying the UN list.
The United Nations has been collecting and analyzing data on the quality of life in most countries of the world since 1990. When calculating the places in the ranking, various economic and statistical indicators are taken into account – data on average income, estimates of life expectancy and the state of the education system of UN member states. The current ranking evaluates data half from the pre-crisis year 2007 from 182 countries. The poorest of them is recognized as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose average annual income per capita does not exceed 204 euros. Half of the population of the 24 poorest countries in the world, according to the UN, is illiterate.
Maxim SMIRNOV. 