Editor's Blog

The United Nations has named the countries with the gold standard, for quality of life in its United Nations Human Development Index report.

Out of the 188 countries ranked by the annual study, Norway and Australia, have once again emerged as the gold standards for measuring quality of life.

Taking into account life-expectancy, education and standard of living, Australia has maintained its spot as the best in the world for three years now, after Norway. Australia, with a population almost five times the top ranked European city, was ahead on life-expectancy and education but lost points for income levels and the comparatively lower level of participation by women in the workforce.

The annual UN-ranking essentially aims at assessing relative standards of worldwide human development and effectively sets the policy markers for other countries. The ranking of 188 countries assessed the ways work aided human development including education rates, women in the paid workforce, global contribution to trade and a country's ability to adapt to the digital revolution.

The report noted that Australia sits in a region which as whole ranked poorly. Asia and the Pacific region had the largest numbers of people ‘trapped in dangerous and demeaning work including forced labour, trafficking and child labour”.

African countries fared the worst and dominated the other end of the HDI spectrum with life-expectancy at just 45.6 years and income levels of about $1.25 a day.