Congrats to Norway... again

[Deuterium]

UN: 'It's best to live in Norway' -
Norway tops UN list over best places to live - again -

Norway still the world's best place to live
For the fourth year in a row, the United Nations has ranked Norway as having the highest standard of living in the world. Sweden, Australia and Canada are next in line, while the United States is further down the scale.

The annual ranking is based largely on average levels of education and income, combined with expected length of lifetime.

The report measured standards of living in 177 countries around the world. Other Nordic countries also ranked high, with Iceland in 7th place, Finland 13th and Denmark 17th.

Norway's gross national product per person amounted to USD 36,600, beaten only by Luxembourg. Its men and women are expected to live to an age of 78.9 years and Norway is one of 19 countries in the world with no measurable rates of illiteracy.

Researchers for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also weighed countries' degrees of cultural freedom in their analysis. They called cultural freedom a "basic human right," and awarded high scores in this year's UN Human Development Report to countries that accept immigrant cultures in addition to their own.

Norway's cultural diversity has blossomed in recent years, and public policies are aimed at integrating various ethnic groups and promoting tolerance.

Norway also was lauded for its high literacy rate in addition to educational levels and material wealth. Norwegians themselves generally point to their country's scenic beauty, recreational opportunities, clean water and fresh air.

The United States landed in eighth place on the list, while France, for example, was 16th.

The worst countries in which to live are all in Africa, according to the UN report. All 23 nations at the bottom of the list were African, with war-torn Sierra Leone in last place.

[cut]

I wish the assylum seekers would listen to the UN. And why is it the US always has to compare itself to France?... are we not good enough ;)

[Jehuty]

Ranking in .pdf (http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/pdf/hdr04_HDI.pdf)

And i still wouldn't want to live in another place. :P

(EDIT: Note that they use the main ranking (IDH) for every others ones, no Norway isn't first at everything :D )

[budanski]

Go Norway (http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article633160.ece)!

[Moledet]

Being in the 22nd place isn't so bad for a country that is 4 years in war :)

[sgt.pepper]

hmmmm @moledet 4 years in war YOU should write 56 years of war and neverending terror

[ExtraT]

hmmmm @moledet 4 years in war YOU should write 56 years of war and neverending terror

The most correct would be just "56 years of official war", since terrorism is an integral part of this war, and it started long before 1948.

[Marsuitor]

I'm loving it... :lol:

[sgt.pepper]

The most correct would be just "56 years of official war", since terrorism is an integral part of this war, and it started long before 1948. You are right

[DPGLAW]

Mabye some more foreigners will read this and stop coming here to the US cause we have enough foreiggners....I for one think that we (the US) should shut our borders completely. We have far too many people that don't belong here to being with and don't want nor need anymore. As a matter of fact, I wish that many of the foreigners here, particularly the muslims and arabs, would just leave or preferably get kicked out

[szr]

Mabye some more foreigners will read this and stop coming here to the US cause we have enough foreiggners....I for one think that we (the US) should shut our borders completely. We have far too many people that don't belong here to being with and don't want nor need anymore. As a matter of fact, I wish that many of the foreigners here, particularly the muslims and arabs, would just leave or preferably get kicked out

If you don't like it here, maybe you should leave.

[DE_Six]

Somalia didn't even make the list :lol:

[Flagg]

I think Norway is beautiful....and it's definitely on the short list of places I want to visit......

Now if only they spoke English instead of that "foreigner talk" ;)

[Moledet]

Heh, the Palestinians have a better living quality than their "brothers".
PA is ranked 102.
Egypt is ranked 120.
Syria is ranked 106.
Morroco is ranked 125.
Yemen is ranked 149.

[sgt.pepper]

'cos they are close related to us

[anonymous individual]

/me rushes to Norway.

[Flagg]

PA is ranked 102.
Egypt is ranked 120.
Syria is ranked 106.
Morroco is ranked 125.
Yemen is ranked 149.

Coincidentally......none of those countries are on my list of "must visit".......Egypt got kicked off the list after tourists started getting targeted a couple of years ago.

[jlanni]

we had a foreign exchange chick from norway LOL! she was hotter then hell.. became pretty good friends with her, too bad she had to go back

[Kilgor]

Sydney named world's best city
08:25 AEST Wed Jul 14 2004


Sydney remains a dream destination for global travellers after being named the World's Best City.

The United States-based magazine Travel + Leisure gave the NSW capital the award for the eighth time in 10 years.

Sydney won ahead of Rome, Florence, Bangkok and Cape Town.

Acting NSW Tourism Minister Tony Kelly said the award confirmed Sydney's reputation as a world city and the first destination of choice for international travellers to Australia.

"No other Australian city makes it into the top 10," Mr Kelly said.

The Great Barrier Reef islands also featured prominently in the awards.




The stretch of islands off the northern Queensland coast was named the 10th in the World's Best Islands category, and No. 1 in the Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific islands category.

Australia's only island state, Tasmania, was second in that category.

Lizard Island, one of the Great Barrier Reef's most luxurious and exotic resorts off the coast of Cairns, ranked 16th in the World's Best Hotels category and topped the World's Best Hotels category for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Australia provided 19 of the top 25 World's Best Hotels in the regional category.

The Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2004 are based on the evaluations of more than 425,000 readers.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=12440

:P

[Thor]

For the fourth year in a row, the United Nations has ranked Norway as having the highest standard of living in the world. Sweden, Australia and Canada are next in line, while the United States is further down the scale.

The annual ranking is based largely on average levels of education and income, combined with expected length of lifetime.

The report measured standards of living in 177 countries around the world. Other Nordic countries also ranked high, with Iceland in 7th place, Finland 13th and Denmark 17th.


Hey Sweden came in second after Norway! woot

Nordic countries rock :D

[Dalleer]

Yeah , Sweden is a fine country in my opinion as well despite the fact that I live in Finland for most of my time.

Further, this result for Norway doesn't come as a surprise to me either , since it's a beautiful country and foremost , a rich one.

[Pzkpfw]

id rather live in finland

[mocking_loudly_died]

Sydney is a rank ****-hole.
Well....it's not - but I hate the arrogant f*ckers that populate it.
Napalm away.

[Michael RVR]

You forget, that award was given by americans...

;) :P

[Kilgor]

Our support in iraq and A stan got us that first place :P

[moughoun]

HAHAHA we came 10th and with a biggergdp per capita then the US woot woot rofl

Take that Switzerland :slap:

[szr]

HAHAHA we came 10th and with a biggergdp per capita then the US woot woot rofl

Take that Switzerland :slap:

I blame outsourcing! Ireland: The little India of western Europe. rofl :P

[moughoun]

HAHAHA we came 10th and with a biggergdp per capita then the US woot woot rofl

Take that Switzerland :slap:

I blame outsourcing! Ireland: The little India of western Europe. rofl :P

As soon as I come back from selling my wagon full of cheese at the market, I'm going to kick your bum p-)

[Ratamacue]

Mabye some more foreigners will read this and stop coming here to the US cause we have enough foreiggners....I for one think that we (the US) should shut our borders completely. We have far too many people that don't belong here to being with and don't want nor need anymore. As a matter of fact, I wish that many of the foreigners here, particularly the muslims and arabs, would just leave or preferably get kicked out
Shhhhh. You're trying to think reasonably again and yet continue to fail.

[Thor]

Mabye some more foreigners will read this and stop coming here to the US cause we have enough foreiggners....I for one think that we (the US) should shut our borders completely. We have far too many people that don't belong here to being with and don't want nor need anymore. As a matter of fact, I wish that many of the foreigners here, particularly the muslims and arabs, would just leave or preferably get kicked out

Are you a native american?

[OldRecon]

The nicest thing about living here is it's somewhat off centre and distant location to war hot spots. Though if the **** really brews it won't help much I suppose :( (as during 1940-45).
Am rather impressed with the Swedes though for the way they manage without access to oil.
As for the Great Barrier reef think I would prefer New Zealand instead.
Good sailing waters and no snakes.

[Jack Mehoff]

Ranking doesn't mean **** because there is nothing like home sweet home.

[Thor]

The nicest thing about living here is it's somewhat off centre and distant location to war hot spots. Though if the **** really brews it won't help much I suppose :( (as during 1940-45).
Am rather impressed with the Swedes though for the way they manage without access to oil.
As for the Great Barrier reef think I would prefer New Zealand instead.
Good sailing waters and no snakes.

If we had played our cards right earlier we still could have had the oil. ;)

I'm curious about your avatar by the way. Do you have that cartoon character in Norway too?

[OldRecon]

The nicest thing about living here is it's somewhat off centre and distant location to war hot spots. Though if the **** really brews it won't help much I suppose :( (as during 1940-45).
Am rather impressed with the Swedes though for the way they manage without access to oil.
As for the Great Barrier reef think I would prefer New Zealand instead.
Good sailing waters and no snakes.

If we had played our cards right earlier we still could have had the oil. ;)

I'm curious about your avatar by the way. Do you have that cartoon character in Norway too?

Yes we have "98'an Karlson" (isn't that his Swedish name??) in Norway too.
Though here he's called nr. "98 Stomperud".

As for "playing your cards" you may have had a share in the oil, but then as I think I've mentioned before, you would have had a share of the German invasion and occupation of WW-2 also. So I guess historicaly it would have been choise between 2 bad alternatives for you.
Either no oil but a free country during WW-2, or oil and German occupation during WW-2.

Your armed forces wasn't in that much better shape than ours during the early part of WW-2. I guess the Luftwaffe would have had as few problems making mincemeat of your Junkers, Gladiators and Hawker Harts, as with our Gladiators and Fokkers. And besides the Swedish officer corps of the early 1940's seems to have had a similar share of germanophiles and nazi sympathisers as our officer corps at the time of the German invasion of 1940 (since that time Norwegian officers and NCOs have standing order by law to defend their country in case of a foreign invasion without orders from above, and cannot put down their arms unless they are either dead or have clear orders from the legitimate political leadership to do so).
Thus I guess you could also have had elements among your officers with similar suspect performance as Quisling or colonel Sundlo (initial commander of Norwegian forces at Narvik, later serving as an officer in the "Norwegian legion" waffen SS unit during the siege of Leningrad) in case of a German invasion.

[Mongrel]

Iceland is on the way to being the first hydrogen based economy..which IMHO is great for many reasons but esp' since that is less money going to the Middle East for oil.

http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCellToday/IndustryInformation/IndustryInformationExternal/Reports/DisplayReport/0,1620,365,00.html

If we weren't in Canada the next places I'd like to live would be Finland, Norway, Sweden.

Cheers!
M.

[One?]

Heh, the Palestinians have a better living quality than their "brothers".
PA is ranked 102.
Egypt is ranked 120.
Syria is ranked 106.
Morroco is ranked 125.
Yemen is ranked 149.

Bahrain 40
Kuwait 44
Qatar 47
UAE 49
Libya 58
Oman 74
Saudi Arabia 77
Lebanon 80

How come you didn't include these in your list?



w00t Canada #4

[szr]

I'm just amazed the US is in the top 10. I would have thought it would have been lower considering the huge range of living conditions in the US. It ranges from the best living conditions on Earth to a place that almost resembles a third world country in some parts. And the income ranges are probably more stratified in the US than any place else in the world. Really poor people aren't uncommon, but neither are rediculously rich people, and theres a lot of every income range inbetween. And in places like where I live (NYC) we all (rich/average/modest/poor) all live and work in close proximity to each other and it seems to workout just fine, on a social level. I love it here and wouldn't live anywhere else :D

#8 woot woot woot

[nasredeenn]

Uzbekistan - 107
Russia 57

Go shorty, it's your birthday..

[Mongrel]

I just heard this last night on CPAC.

In comparison betwee the US and Canada...

The poorist Canadians are still 40% wealthier then the poorist Americans.

And the wealthiest Canadians are 60% less wealthy then the wealthiest American.

Strange eh?

Cheers!
M.