Study: Quality of Life highest in Scandinavian Countries

[Tender Branson]

PARIS (AFP) - Nordic countries take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to a ranking published on Thursday by the publication Reader's Digest.

Finland comes top of the 141-nation list, followed by Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and then Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and Australia.

At the bottom of the list is Ethiopia, preceded by Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Chad.

The United States comes in 23rd, China 84th and India 104th.

The ranking combines environmental factors, such as air and water quality, respect for biodiversity and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as social factors, such as gross domestic product, access to education, unemployment rate and life expectancy.

The statistical basis is the UN's Human Development Index and the Environmental Sustainability Index drawn up by Yale and Columbia universities and the World Economic Forum.

European countries -- again, led by Scandinavia -- also top the Reader's Digest assessment of 72 cities for their quality of life. The criteria for this include public transport, parks, air quality, rubbish recycling and the price of electricity.

The winner is Stockholm, followed by Oslo, Munich and Paris.

Asia's mega-cities fare the worst. At the bottom is Beijing, preceded by Shanghai, Mumbai, Guangzhou and Bangkok.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/070920/19/14h8h.html

http://www.rd.com/content/greenest-locations-on-the-globe/3/

[Tender Branson]

So's the suicide rate.

Not according to wiki. Though in saying that the Scandinavian suicide rate is still strangely high, I'm surprised to note that both Sweden's and Denmark's than both Ireland and the US.

Still they are both behind free-market paradise Estonia; so politics seems to have little to do with it.

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

I agree that politics and wealth don´t have much of an influence on suicide rates: Suicide Rates may be high and low in poor countries as well as in wealthier countries:

The Netherlands for example, a country considered to be wealthy, has consistently one of the lower suicide rates while Japan has one of the highest.

Egypt meanwhile, a rather poor country, has one of the lowest rates, while India, also rather poor has one of the highest rates (except former Soviet countries) Just look at the rate the poor farmers are killing themselves in India because of drought, despair and debt ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/world/asia/19india.html

PS: It´s good to see that Austria's suicide rate is down by almost 50% since 1986 and reached its lowest level last year. But it is still high at 15.6 per 100.000. But considering it was at 30 per 100.000 about 20 years ago, it´s still nice to see.