Canada ranks fourth on quality of life

06 October 2009 05:13

The UN’s verdict is in: Canadians have the fourth-best quality of life in the world, behind top-rated Norway, Australia and Iceland.

And Canada again surpasses the wealthier United States, which has slid from 12th to 13th place between 2006 and 2007, the last year for which international data was tabulated. Canada’s position is unchanged since 2006.

The figures are tallied by the United Nations Development Program’s annual Human Development Index, which analyses the statistics of 182 countries.

At the bottom of the  scale is destitute Niger. Only a cut above is Afghanistan, in spite of billions of dollars of development money.