2006 Human Development Index Rankings Released

[STING2]

The 2006 Human Development Index which compares the standard of living of 177 countries around the world has just been released. The United States is up two places to #8. Ireland which entered the top 10 for the first time in its history two years ago now has the 4th highest standard of living on the planet. An incredible turn around for a country that even BONO refered to as a "third world country" decades ago and suffered one of the worst famines in history 160 years ago leading to the eventual loss of nearly 60% of its pre-famine population. China is up four spots to #81 while Brazil has dropped several spots and is now behind Belarus in standard of living. The United Kingdom was several places ahead of Ireland just 3 years ago, it has now fallen to #18 versus Ireland which is now at #4. If this trend continues, in a few years, Ireland just might knock Norway off of the top spot where it has been for over a decade.

Here is the complete list for 2006:


1 Norway
2 Iceland
3 Australia
4 Ireland
5 Sweden
6 Canada
7 Japan
8 United States
9 Switzerland
10 Netherlands
11 Finland
12 Luxembourg
13 Belgium
14 Austria
15 Denmark
16 France
17 Italy
18 United Kingdom
19 Spain
20 New Zealand
21 Germany
22 Hong Kong, China (SAR)
23 Israel
24 Greece
25 Singapore
26 Korea, Rep. of
27 Slovenia
28 Portugal
29 Cyprus
30 Czech Republic
31 Barbados
32 Malta
33 Kuwait
34 Brunei Darussalam
35 Hungary
36 Argentina
37 Poland
38 Chile
39 Bahrain
40 Estonia
41 Lithuania
42 Slovakia
43 Uruguay
44 Croatia
45 Latvia
46 Qatar
47 Seychelles
48 Costa Rica
49 United Arab Emirates
50 Cuba
51 Saint Kitts and Nevis
52 Bahamas
53 Mexico
54 Bulgaria
55 Tonga
56 Oman
57 Trinidad and Tobago
58 Panama
59 Antigua and Barbuda
60 Romania
61 Malaysia
62 Bosnia and Herzegovina
63 Mauritius
64 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
65 Russian Federation
66 Macedonia, TFYR
67 Belarus
68 Dominica
69 Brazil
70 Colombia
71 Saint Lucia
72 Venezuela, RB
73 Albania
74 Thailand
75 Samoa (Western)
76 Saudi Arabia
77 Ukraine
78 Lebanon
79 Kazakhstan
80 Armenia
81 China
82 Peru
83 Ecuador
84 Philippines
85 Grenada
86 Jordan
87 Tunisia
88 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
89 Suriname
90 Fiji
91 Paraguay
92 Turkey
93 Sri Lanka
94 Dominican Republic
95 Belize
96 Iran, Islamic Rep. of
97 Georgia
98 Maldives
99 Azerbaijan
100 Occupied Palestinian Territories
101 El Salvador
102 Algeria
103 Guyana
104 Jamaica
105 Turkmenistan
106 Cape Verde
107 Syrian Arab Republic
108 Indonesia
109 Viet Nam
110 Kyrgyzstan
111 Egypt
112 Nicaragua
113 Uzbekistan
114 Moldova, Rep. of
115 Bolivia
116 Mongolia
117 Honduras
118 Guatemala
119 Vanuatu
120 Equatorial Guinea
121 South Africa
122 Tajikistan
123 Morocco
124 Gabon
125 Namibia
126 India
127 São Tomé and Principe
128 Solomon Islands
129 Cambodia
130 Myanmar
131 Botswana
132 Comoros
133 Lao People's Dem. Rep.
134 Pakistan
135 Bhutan
136 Ghana
137 Bangladesh
138 Nepal
139 Papua New Guinea
140 Congo
141 Sudan
142 Timor-Leste
143 Madagascar
144 Cameroon
145 Uganda
146 Swaziland
147 Togo
148 Djibouti
149 Lesotho
150 Yemen
151 Zimbabwe
152 Kenya
153 Mauritania
154 Haiti
155 Gambia
156 Senegal
157 Eritrea
158 Rwanda
159 Nigeria
160 Guinea
161 Angola
162 Tanzania, U. Rep. of
163 Benin
164 Côte d'Ivoire
165 Zambia
166 Malawi
167 Congo, Dem. Rep. of the
168 Mozambique
169 Burundi
170 Ethiopia
171 Chad
172 Central African Republic
173 Guinea-Bissau
174 Burkina Faso
175 Mali
176 Sierra Leone
177 Niger



http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/

 

[Angela Harlem]

Wow, the cold countries are the places to be.

 

[zepher25]

execpt for Australia

 

[Axver]

execpt for Australia

Actually, the desert's just there for tourists. Where the locals live, the ground is covered by a thick permafrost and snowstorms are a regular occurrence. Especially in Snowtown, South Australia.

 

[INDY500]

Wow, the capitalistic democracies are the places to be.

India #126? Disappointing, I would have thought higher given their economic growth.

United States moving up! Under the Bush Regime? How can that be, we don't even enjoy habeas corpus anymore.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Germany's ranking without the former GDR would've been interesting.
But given the social securities I really can't believe we are that bad.

I fully acknowledge Norway being first.

It's so beautiful over their and the people really have a nice living (and they don't have the burden of the EU )

 

[all_i_want]

Well, I am studying in Norway and one thing that would really secure their number one standing is to cut taxes on alcohol prices! Now, if that appears to be counterintuitive, let me put things in perspective for you. Alcohol is an important part of the student consumption, but one glass of crappy Hansa beer is around 40 kroners. That is 4.5 euros, my friends! I won't even go into the decent beer prices. This is really hurting our welfare! Something's got to be done!

On a more serious point, they have free healthcare, free education, a beautiful country, 150 billion dollars in a petroleum fund, and only 4.5 million people. It is the world's most spacious country, too. The only downsides are.. well, the cold, the dark and the rain. Overall, it is an experience... although I wouldnt want to live here for long, it is a little depressing sometimes.

 

[Liesje]

only 4.5 million people. It is the world's most spacious country, too.

Interesting, I didn't know that about Norway. Do you (anyone) think that's a significant factor for their high rank? That's a LOT of land and resources for such a relatively tiny number of people.

 

[STING2]

Ireland is roughly the same size as Norway in terms of population, but does not have its land or natural resources. Yet, Ireland is already up to #4 and may soon challenge Norway for the top spot in just a few years. It was only three years ago that Ireland entered the top 10 for the first time in its history.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Greenland has the lowest population density, Australia has more per capita space than Norway.

 

[all_i_want]

less than 31 people per square mile?

Petroleum income has certainly been a transforming factor for Norway, and the wealth from that will certainly continue to provide high living standards to the country for years to come. It is an interesting example of sustainable petroleum wealth.

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Canada was no.1 for many years in the 90's - I don't recall what exactly accounts for our slip in the ratings (to #6) but it is the source of political wrangling in these parts.

 

[Judah]

Where the hell's Iraq? It didn't even register. Even if it's last...put the poor thing on the list.

...oh, and Afghanistan.

 

[STING2]

Where the hell's Iraq? It didn't even register. Even if it's last...put the poor thing on the list.

...oh, and Afghanistan.

There are about 17 countries missing from the list because reliable data cannot be obtained from these countries in order to make an accurate comparison to other countries and rank them among other countries.

Notice though that Bosnia, a country that saw far worse violence than anything that has been seen in Iraq, started to show up on the list ranking in the mid 60s 5 years after the conflict had ended there.

While the violence in Iraq may be heavy, most of it is concentrated in a quarter of the countries provinces with the rest of the country relatively peaceful. One also has to consider the absence of the restrictions placed on the Kurds and Shia population centers for 25 years while Saddam was in power and how that has improved standards of living in those area's.

 

[ntalwar]

Wow, the capitalistic democracies are the places to be.

Interstingly, several of the top countries have consumption taxes(VAT) of over 20%. Some of the countries are nice to visit, but are very expensive to live in (compared to most of the US).

 

[Popmartijn]

India #126? Disappointing, I would have thought higher given their economic growth.

While India has a high economic growth the past few years, the standard of living is still very low. I read a few weeks ago that the people living in poverty has decreased with less than 1 percentage-point compared to a few years ago. Yes, many more people live above the poverty line than a few years ago, but with the high population growth the absolute number of people living in poverty was still rising (I think).
So there's still a lot to be done to raise the standard of living here.

 

[TheQuiet1]

I'm really surprised that New Zealand is lower on the list than the UK. Must be all those Brits emigrating there lowering the tone!

 

[Axver]

I'm really surprised that New Zealand is lower on the list than the UK. Must be all those Brits emigrating there lowering the tone!

New Zealand's been slipping over the past few years. I think we were up around 6th just four or so years back.

Maybe moving to Australia wasn't such a bad idea after all ...

 

[najeena]

Ireland's minimum wage is nearly ten dollars (7.65 euros), I think this has a lot to do with the prosperity there. America's minimum wage is paltry in comparison.

 

[A_Wanderer]

less than 31 people per square mile?

Petroleum income has certainly been a transforming factor for Norway, and the wealth from that will certainly continue to provide high living standards to the country for years to come. It is an interesting example of sustainable petroleum wealth.

Norway = 12/km2

Australia = 2.6/km2

Greenland = 0.026/km2

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

 

[STING2]

Ireland's minimum wage is nearly ten dollars (7.65 euros), I think this has a lot to do with the prosperity there. America's minimum wage is paltry in comparison.

It might have an impact if a good chunk of the population was living on minimum wage, but the vast majority of people in both countries are not. In fact, with unemployment so low in the United States now, wages are rising naturally as employers compete to catch the dwindling number of workers.

Ireland is at #4 now, but only a couple of years ago, it was not even in the top 10. The United States has moved up two spots from last year to #8. There are many different factors that go into determining the standard of living in a country. But both countries are doing so well economically and have very small levels of unemployment that its unlikely that the minimum wage level has much effect.

 

[najeena]

Dismiss it all you like, a living wage means good things for any country and it's people.

 

[STING2]

Dismiss it all you like, a living wage means good things for any country and it's people.

A minimum wage that is too high in economically uncertain times will only create more unemployment as employers will be unable to afford to hire such workers. You have to think about how it impacts the economy as a whole rather than simply looking at how it impacts a single individual. Higher unemployment is not a good thing for any country or its people. In high performing economies like Ireland and the United States currently, minimum wage can be high or raised because most employers are already paying more than that sum for their lowest paid workers.

 

[najeena]

A minimum wage that is too high in economically uncertain times will only create more unemployment as employers will be unable to afford to hire such workers. You have to think about how it impacts the economy as a whole rather than simply looking at how it impacts a single individual. Higher unemployment is not a good thing for any country or its people. In high performing economies like Ireland and the United States currently, minimum wage can be high or raised because most employers are already paying more than that sum for their lowest paid workers.

Uncertain times? We're told by the government that our economy is fabulous. You put us up with Ireland as a high performing economy, so why are we so vunerable? The eye-popping amount we owe foreign countries? A house of credit cards can't be stable, no matter how you spin it.

 

[all_i_want]

Norway = 12/km2

Australia = 2.6/km2

Greenland = 0.026/km2

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

So you guys have a pretty big continent over there, hmm?

 

[STING2]

Uncertain times? We're told by the government that our economy is fabulous. You put us up with Ireland as a high performing economy, so why are we so vunerable? The eye-popping amount we owe foreign countries? A house of credit cards can't be stable, no matter how you spin it.

I specifially stated that the United States and Ireland could increase the minimum wage at the current time because the vast majority of people around those wage levels are already making more than that giving the strength of the economy and the low level of unemployment. I never said that these were uncertain times for the economy, but that during times that are uncertain, a minimum wage hike or one that is to high, actually hurts workers on the bottom as business's can't afford to higher them all.

Every country around the world has a substantial level of debt. The current US level of debt is around 65% to 70% of annual GDP. In 1946 just after World War II, the US debt level was 150% of GDP. That high debt level though did not dappen the economic boom in the United States after World War II.

While the United States has a lot of foreign debt, much of the world depends on being able to export their goods to the largest market on the planet, the United States. China may hold a lot of US foreign Debt, but their continued economic growth is heavily dependent on its exports to the United States. The United States by comparison does not export nearly as much to China. In the event of a crises, China has more to lose than the United States does.