Scandinavian countries fared particularly well in the latest best countries compilation, which Newsweek said was its first-ever such list. Sweden ranked third, Norway sixth and Denmark tenth.
Newsweek’s home country, the US, ranked 11th, the UK 14th, Australia fourth and Luxembourg fifth.
China came in at only 59th, Russia at 51st, and India at 78th. South Africa was in 82nd place.
In drawing up the list, Newsweek said, its editors had “set out to answer a question that is at once simple and incredibly complex – if you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous and upwardly mobile life?”
Among its important findings, the magazine went on, was the fact that “smaller is often better” (an element in the success of the Nordic nations), and that a good, broad-based education system “is crucial”.
Newsweek said it focused on five categories of national well-being – education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness and political environment – in determining which countries were more or less agreeable places to live than others. A total of 100 are rated, with Burkina Faso in last place.
The magazine’s editors consulted an advisory board that included Nobel laureate and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz, McKinsey & Co Social Sector Office director Byron Auguste, and McKinsey Global Institute director James Manyika.
Below are the top 20 countries in order, followed by the final 10:
1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
11. The United States
12. Germany
13. New Zealand
14. United Kingdom
15. South Korea
16. France
17. Ireland
18. Austria
19. Belgium
20. Singapore
90. Madagascar
91. Senegal
92. Yemen
93. Tanzania
94. Ethiopia
95. Mozambique
96. Uganda
97. Zambia
98. Cameroon
99. Nigeria
100. Burkina Faso
