Quality-of-Life Index

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The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality of life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries. The index was calculated in 2005 and includes data from 111 countries and territories.

[edit] Methodology

The survey uses nine quality of life factors to determine a nation's score^[1]. They are listed below including the indicators used to represent these factors:

Health: Life expectancy at birth (in years.) Source: US Census Bureau
Family life: Divorce rate (per 1,000 population), converted into index of 1 (lowest divorce rates) to 5 (highest). Sources: UN; Euromonitor
Community life: Dummy variable taking value 1 if country has either high rate of church attendance or trade-union membership; zero otherwise. Source: World Values Survey
Material well being: GDP per person, at PPP in $. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Political stability and security: Political stability and security ratings. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Climate and geography: Latitude, to distinguish between warmer and colder climes. Source: CIA World Factbook
Job security: Unemployment rate (%.) Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Political freedom: Average of indexes of political and civil liberties. Scale of 1 (completely free) to 7 (unfree). Source: Freedom House
Gender equality: measured using ratio of average male and female earnings. Source: UNDP Human Development Report

[edit] The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index, 2005

World map showing the Quality of Life Scores 8.000 - 8.999 7.000 - 7.999 6.000 - 6.999 5.000 - 5.999 4.000 - 4.999 3.000 - 3.999 No Data

111 countries and territories were included in the 2005 Quality of Life Index.^[1]

Rank	Country or territory	Quality of Life Score (out of 10)
1	Ireland	8.333
2	Switzerland	8.068
3	Norway	8.051
4	Luxembourg	8.015
5	Sweden	7.937
6	Australia	7.925
7	Iceland	7.911
8	Italy	7.810
9	Denmark	7.797
10	Spain	7.727
11	Singapore	7.719
12	Finland	7.618
13	United States	7.615
14	Canada	7.599
15	New Zealand	7.436
16	Netherlands	7.433
17	Japan	7.392
18	Hong Kong	7.347
19	Portugal	7.307
20	Austria	7.268
21	Republic of China (Taiwan)	7.259
22	Greece	7.163
23	Cyprus	7.097
24	Belgium	7.095
25	France	7.084
26	Germany	7.048
27	Slovenia	6.986
28	Malta	6.934
29	United Kingdom	6.917
30	South Korea	6.877
31	Chile	6.789
32	Mexico	6.766
33	Barbados	6.702
34	Czech Republic	6.629
35	Costa Rica	6.624
36	Malaysia	6.608
37	Hungary	6.534
38	Israel	6.488
39	Brazil	6.470
40	Argentina	6.469
41	Qatar	6.462
42	Thailand	6.436
43	Sri Lanka	6.417
44	Philippines	6.403
45	Slovakia	6.381
46	Uruguay	6.368
47	Panama	6.361
48	Poland	6.309
49	Croatia	6.301
50	Turkey	6.287
51	Trinidad and Tobago	6.279
52	Ecuador	6.273
53	Peru	6.217
54	Colombia	6.177
55	Kuwait	6.172
56	El Salvador	6.165
57	Bulgaria	6.163
58	Romania	6.106
59	Venezuela	6.090
60	China	6.084
61	Vietnam	6.081
62	Bahrain	6.036
63	Lithuania	6.034
64	Jamaica	6.023
65	Morocco	6.019
66	Latvia	6.009
67	Oman	5.917
68	Estonia	5.906
69	United Arab Emirates	5.900
70	Libya	5.850
71	Indonesia	5.815
72	Saudi Arabia	5.768
73	India	5.760
74	Paraguay	5.757
75	Jordan	5.676
76	Nicaragua	5.664
77	Bangladesh	5.647
78	Albania	5.635
79	Dominican Republic	5.631
80	Egypt	5.606
81	Algeria	5.572
82	Bolivia	5.493
83	Tunisia	5.473
84	Serbia	5.429
85	Armenia	5.423
86	Azerbaijan	5.378
87	Georgia	5.366
88	Iran	5.344
89	Republic of Macedonia	5.338
90	Guatemala	5.322
91	Honduras	5.251
92	South Africa	5.246
93	Pakistan	5.230
94	Bosnia and Herzegovina	5.219
95	Ghana	5.175
96	Kazakhstan	5.083
97	Syria	5.053
98	Ukraine	5.033
99	Moldova	5.010
100	Belarus	4.978
101	Uganda	4.879
102	Turkmenistan	4.870
103	Kyrgyzstan	4.846
104	Botswana	4.810
105	Russia	4.796
106	Uzbekistan	4.767
107	Tajikistan	4.754
108	Nigeria	4.505
109	Tanzania	4.495
110	Haiti	4.090
111	Zimbabwe	3.892

[edit] Countries not listed

Many countries/territories, including most of the Least Developed Countries, are omitted from this ranking as there is insufficient data to produce a viable rank.