Best places to live: SA 121st
Cape Town - South Africa, achieving only "medium human development", is the 121st best country in the world to live in, according to an index ranking 177 nations.
The UN Development Program's human development index, which was released in Cape Town on Thursday, ranked Norway as the world's best nation to live in for a sixth consecutive year, prompting the country's aid minister to tell Norwegians to stop whining about wanting more, reports Dow Jones Newswires.
Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden ranked as the best five countries to live in, but Africa's quality of life has plummeted because of Aids, said the report.
The United States was ranked in eighth place, after Canada and Japan, in the report that rates not only per-capita income but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.
Norwegians earn 40X more than people in Niger
The Human Development Index, prepared by the UN Development Program, has been issued annually since 1990 and includes every country for which statistics are available, reports Reuters.
According to the index, South Africa's overall score was 0.653 on a scale that has a high of 0.965 for Norway and a low of 0.311 for Niger.
South Africa is in a group of countries categorised as achieving "medium human development".
Unsurprisingly, the countries at the top of the list are high income nations as people in richer countries tend to be healthier and have more educational opportunities.
According to the study, Norwegians earn 40 times more than the study's lowest-ranked country, Niger, live almost twice as long and have a literacy rate that is nearly five times higher.
SA's life expectancy 47 years
For the 31 countries with low human development, life expectancy is only 46 years - some 32 years less than in rich nations, the report said.
South Africa's life expectancy is 47 years and adult (15 and older) literacy is 82.4%. The report said the country's combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools is 77%.
According to Reuters some nations scored a rank above their income. Vietnam for example is poor but ranks above countries with a higher per capita income. Conversely Bahrain has an average income twice the level of Chile but ranks lower because it "under-performs on education and literacy", the report said.
Many of South Africa's neighbours to the north did not fare so well. Of the 31 countries at the bottom of the index, a total of 28 are from the south of the Sahara, reports China's Xinhua news agency.
Aids catastrophe
Since 1990, sub-Sahara Africa has stagnated, in part because of economic decline but mainly because of the "catastrophic effect of HIV/AIDS on life expectancy", the report said.
According to Dow Jones Norway's Aid Minister Erik Solheim said in a radio interview the top place should make Norwegians show humility. "Norway should be seen as a modern, rich and successful society, but should also be seen as a generous country. The world must see us as rich and generous, not rich and miserly."
Despite wealth, high levels of education, low unemployment, and an economic boom, Norwegians often complain of high taxes and of shortcomings in their cradle-to-grave welfare state, such as waiting lists at hospitals, and a lack of public care for both children and the elderly.
He said: "There are unsolved problems in Norway, but let us battle this culture of whining, and look at the future with optimism."
Iraq, Afghanistan not ranked
Solheim said instead of complaining, Norwegians should work on solving those problems, and to share their wealth with poorer countries. Norway is already one of the world's most generous foreign aid donors per capita, giving nearly 1% of its gross national product.
Norway, a nation of 4.6 million people, is the world's third largest oil exporter, after Saudi Arabia.
The five countries with the lowest scores were Guinea-Bissau in 173rd place, Burkina Faso as 174, Mali as 175, Sierra Leone as 176, and Niger 177.
The report was not able to rank 17 countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, because there was insufficient data. - Reuters/Dow Jones/Xinhua/UN report
News source: www.news24.co.za
Posted by: www.SouthAfrica-CarHire.com
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