Canada 4th in UN ranking (US is 13th)

[IndianaGreen]

Source: Toronto Star

Canada 4th in UN ranking

Norway is tops, Niger worst; China and Iran climbing

Oct 05, 2009 10:53 AM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANGKOK – Norway enjoys the world's highest quality of life, while Niger suffers the lowest, a United Nations agency said Monday, as it released a ranking that highlights the wide disparities in well-being between rich and poor countries.

Canada was listed fourth, well ahead of the United States which was in 13th place.

The annual Human Development Index, unveiled in Bangkok by the UN Development Program, takes into account life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and per capita gross domestic product in 182 countries.

"A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50 years, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. Furthermore, the differences in per capita income are huge for every dollar earned per person in Niger, US$85 are earned in Norway," UNDP said.

Norway was followed by Australia and Iceland on the list, which drew on statistics dating from 2007, before Iceland was hit hard in global economic crisis. Afghanistan and Sierra Leone rounded out the bottom of the ranking.

Trends in the index since 1980 showed an average improvement of 15 per cent in countries' scores. The greatest long-term improvements have been shown by China, Iran and Nepal, but progress has been concentrated in education and health rather than income, said the agency.


Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/705518

[peacetalksforall]

1. What a loaded, wide meaning sentence.!

"The greatest long-term improvements have been shown by China, Iran and Nepal, but progress has been concentrated in education and health rather than income, said the agency."

. Wouldn't it be great if we could say progress in the U.S. has been concentrated in education and health, rather than killing stealing.

. Some of our health problems have been from our FDA - they let in some poisonsout stuff from China.

[harmonicon]

7. I was thinking the exact same thing

I wish we'd improve in areas of education and health - fuck money. What point is money if you can't get a good education for it and you're not healthy?

[tocqueville]

2. ridiculous, the quality of life has improved in the US since 2008

in 2008 the US was ranked 15, now it's ranked 13.

obviously at least one of those 3 factors has improved :

The HDI combines three dimensions:

* Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity
* Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).
* Standard of living, as measured by the natural logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

[depakid]

3. This was pre-economic meltdown data

The US has slid further down the list at this point- and will continue to slide relative to other nations due to its health care "system," poor educational funding and continuing decline in real wages.

[tocqueville]

4. that's not the only explanation...

the data must be seriously flawed

how come Luxemburg jumped from place 18 to 9 in one year ? this is a country of half a million inhabitants with a single resource... banking. 2008 must have been extremely good for GDP......

Iceland and Ireland are virtually bankrupt today, and still in the top ten.

[blueberrypickn]

5. of course, if the US ain't Number One, the data is flawed...

*groan*


it couldn't have anything to do with **other previously higher-ranking nations circling the bowl** now could it?

Damn, people.

[Oldtimeralso]

6. What?

The OP's source says:
"However, five countries rose three or more places – China, Colombia, France, Peru and Venezuela – while seven countries dropped more than two places – Belize, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, and Tonga."

But you say "the data must be seriously flawed

how come Luxemburg jumped from place 18 to 9 in one year ? this is a country of half a million inhabitants with a single resource... banking. 2008 must have been extremely good for GDP......"

Which is correct?

[krkaufman]

9. The excerpt above addresses this.

Norway was followed by Australia and Iceland on the list, which drew on statistics dating from 2007, before Iceland was hit hard in global economic crisis.

[Downwinder]

8. So, getting rid of Bush moved us up two places.

Let's dump some more Repugs and we can move up more.

[Doctor_J]

13. Heh. More likely we didn't slide as far as some others.

[DLnyc]

10. The complete table, from the UN site:

http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/

[daleo]

11. Canada used to be at the top

When the Liberals were in power. But now we have Conservative Harper and we are fading.

[harry_pothead]

12. I've been to Scandinavia. They know how to run a fucking society there.

The best thing is, their 2 party system is basically our liberal democrats vs our moderate democrats.

[Doctor_J]

14. No wonder I couldn't get a job in Canada

they probably don't want any Limbecilic Americans polluting their way of living.