Top 10 best places to live in the world
From Global Edge
By Global Edge, Tuesday, January 26, 2010.
Editor's note: This item is republished with permission from Global Edge Marketing Ltd. The original post can be viewed here.
U.S. publication International Living has published its 2010 Quality of Life Index, which ranks 194 countries based on their quality of life.
The index looks at nine categories: cost of living; culture and leisure; economy; environment; freedom; health; infrastructure; safety and risk; and climate. For the fifth consecutive year, France is top.
The top 10 countries are:
1. France: An unsurpassable quality of life, including the world's best health care.
2. Australia: Countrywide access to an active and healthy lifestyle. Urban dwellers enjoy plenty of great culture, excellent food and a favorable cost of living.
3. Switzerland: A super-efficient, high-tech society and alpine tourism.
4. Germany: Theater, art and classical music concerts. Average employee earnings of 41,509 euros (the equivalent of about $58,720 in U.S. dollars).
5. New Zealand: Pristine landscapes and absence of high crime rates, abject poverty, pollution, congestion, health issues and cramped city living.
6. Luxembourg: A financial center and tax haven, and a per capita gross domestic product of $88,000.
7. United States: Convenience of getting what you want, when you want it.
8. Belgium: Expat-friendly with everything from English-language cinema to international schools.
9. Canada: High living and health care standards. Vast natural resources, robust financial industry, and innovative manufacturing.
10. Italy: Grand historic cities, 60 percent of the world's art treasures, and a World Health Organization-acclaimed national health care system.
To view the research in full, click here.
Copyright © 2010 Global Edge Marketing Ltd.
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Submitted by David J. White on January 26, 2010 - 4:35pm.
Would that our Citizen of the World in Chief will see this brilliant, unbiased research and move straight to #1 without delay, stopping only briefly in #6 to shield his assets from the incentive-killing, initiative-sapping taxation for which his ultimate destination is well known. Far better a solution than continuing to bully our entire country into going there against its will (save the odd romantic vacation). Alas, #1 has high housing prices, sustained not by growth in the French economy or by a growth in market (non-union) wages, or even by romance itself, but by - - you guessed it - - rampant tax-funded housing subsidies! This despite structurally high unemployment, production costs, and budget deficits. No bias in that research at all; let's renew those passports and jump the Pond!