The Best Place to Live

If you were walking along a dusty country road and kicked a rusty can in the middle of the road, and and an Arabian genie would puff out of the can and said, “Thank you Master for exiting me out of my cage.  Please tell me where you would like to spend the rest of your life and I will take care of all your expenses for the rest of your life.  Where would it be? Which country in the world would you choose?

I would choose Spain without hesistating a second.  I’ve always had a dream to drive through La Mancha following the route of Don Quixote or visiting the El Prado Museum and enjoy the paintings of Velásquez or walking through the stone streets of Toledo where El Greco used to live.  Yep, I would tell my genie to take me to Spain and pay my bills for the rest of my days.

In a recent Human Development Index compiled by the UN Development Program (UNDP), amongst a list of 182 countries, Norway is the best place to live.  The study is based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan. China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.  The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.

The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.  A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. For every dollar a person earns in Niger, 85 dollars are earned in Norway.

The top ten best countries to live according to the UNDP are:

1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Iceland
4. Canada
5. Ireland
6. The Netherlands
7. Sweden
8. France
9. Switzerland
10. Japan

It’s interesting that seven out of the ten best countries to live, are located in Europe.  Not a single country was located in Latin America; and sadly, Spain was not on the list.  (Sigh…) Any comments?  Good Day.