Quality of life in a country comparison

Quality of life in a country comparison

A total of 36 factors were included in the calculation of the overall index, which were divided into 7 subject areas here. The best achievable value in each division is 100, see below the table to read which individual criteria are included in each division.

This table applies primarily to residents who also receive their income and pay taxes in the respective country. If you want to ignore these factors (e.g. for pensioners abroad), there is a different version here:

› Table for expats without local income and taxes Here you can adjust the weighting of each area:

Political and economic stability:
Legal system and civil rights:
Health and medical services:
Safety:

Climate:
Costs and income:
Popularity:

 

RankCountryStability(15%)Rights(20%)Health(15%)Safety(10%)Climate(15%)Costs(15%)Popularity(10%)TotalQuality of life(100%)                                           

1	Australia	86	92	87	100	90	23	41	76
2	San Marino	81	82	91	87	62	61	47	74
3	Hong Kong	77	85	100	97	49	61	41	74
4	Switzerland	91	99	93	99	34	44	46	74
5	Macao	90	71	100	93	48	61	44	73
6	Malta	86	72	91	92	75	41	44	72
7	Luxembourg	93	99	85	100	25	46	42	71
8	Bermuda	89	78	96	93	68	34	35	71
9	Singapore	83	89	79	100	45	55	39	71
10	Spain	64	73	87	95	74	43	66	71
11	Japan	87	86	92	97	58	27	36	70
12	Austria	83	91	97	98	27	37	47	69
13	Portugal	80	77	82	93	68	44	37	69
14	Canada	85	92	78	97	33	37	62	69
15	Germany	82	94	96	95	21	44	42	69
16	Norway	89	99	90	99	16	42	37	69
17	South Korea	81	75	92	95	56	42	39	69
18	Cyprus	67	68	77	93	75	53	50	69
19	New Zealand	91	100	81	95	35	26	37	68
20	Sweden	87	99	85	96	20	40	37	68
21	France	72	83	91	93	41	29	71	68
22	Finland	85	100	87	93	17	46	32	68
23	Denmark	86	100	85	95	17	35	45	67
24	Netherlands	84	98	83	96	20	40	37	67
25	Uruguay	67	79	75	82	77	47	30	67
26	United States	63	81	71	85	66	37	67	67
27	United Arab Emirates	82	65	65	93	62	67	28	67
28	Slovenia	80	73	83	96	40	57	32	66
29	Czechia	78	73	90	93	22	49	59	66
30	Qatar	77	60	62	94	60	70	38	66
31	Croatia	67	58	80	91	57	67	40	65
32	Israel	57	72	84	81	81	36	33	65
33	Greece	60	61	89	88	69	44	43	65
34	Poland	69	67	79	93	26	58	69	64
35	Italy	65	65	87	89	57	30	65	64
36	Hungary	70	57	81	88	42	56	57	63
37	Chile	66	79	68	87	47	54	36	63
38	Iceland	82	92	87	97	7	36	33	63
39	Belgium	75	87	88	92	20	32	40	63
40	Estonia	80	89	81	92	17	43	26	63
41	Ireland	84	90	82	96	2	35	42	62
42	Bulgaria	68	51	81	85	50	62	40	62
43	United Kingdom	76	91	78	95	6	34	42	61
44	Slovakia	73	67	77	89	34	42	41	60
45	Saudi Arabia	53	45	61	90	52	76	55	60
46	Latvia	74	74	77	87	19	55	24	60
47	Lithuania	77	75	82	88	20	43	23	60
48	Bahrain	59	45	61	92	63	72	28	59
49	Oman	68	51	64	92	43	68	31	59
50	North Macedonia	56	48	70	87	56	64	36	59
51	Romania	64	57	73	88	37	68	25	59
52	Thailand	61	40	65	96	46	55	63	58
53	Malaysia	70	58	61	91	44	46	41	58
54	Costa Rica	69	69	64	73	44	46	32	58
55	Georgia	46	63	67	88	44	58	36	57
56	Maldives	64	39	72	87	62	59	18	57
57	Samoa	76	63	50	83	46	58	14	57
58	China	69	37	67	90	56	38	57	57
59	Kuwait	66	47	66	88	32	74	25	57
60	Paraguay	57	37	51	76	78	66	35	56
61	Argentina	41	44	79	78	77	41	38	56
62	Montenegro	50	52	68	85	53	61	24	56
63	Morocco	56	40	53	87	81	45	36	56
64	Peru	55	46	54	84	70	50	34	55
65	Tunisia	38	49	60	82	79	47	39	55
66	Sri Lanka	52	43	62	92	57	56	33	55
67	Albania	58	43	64	84	55	57	26	55
68	Ecuador	61	36	60	88	57	61	27	54
69	Mongolia	59	44	60	72	44	70	31	54
70	Bosnia and Herzegovina	47	38	69	86	49	70	26	54
71	Armenia	36	51	70	93	50	57	23	54
72	Jordan	50	48	60	77	52	63	27	54
73	Turkey	31	38	64	87	62	59	50	54
74	Serbia	54	44	71	87	51	57	11	53
75	Senegal	64	47	33	91	52	56	36	53
76	Rwanda	68	48	27	72	60	58	37	53
77	South Africa	47	54	31	43	95	49	40	52
78	India	48	46	35	79	67	45	59	52
79	Algeria	35	24	61	97	78	55	36	52
80	Mexico	46	37	54	52	83	34	69	52
81	Kazakhstan	54	36	69	82	40	60	33	52
82	Vietnam	67	35	54	76	52	51	33	52
83	Indonesia	61	44	39	98	39	54	38	51
84	Bolivia	57	28	45	68	85	51	33	51
85	Moldova	51	41	67	84	40	62	15	51
86	Trinidad and Tobago	68	50	61	39	51	48	30	51
87	Timor-Leste	65	37	42	42	72	67	23	51
88	Ukraine	42	36	71	82	33	60	38	50
89	Egypt	36	26	44	83	68	59	52	50
90	Brazil	37	45	63	60	65	44	35	50
91	Dominican Republic	50	41	52	67	60	49	30	50
92	Jamaica	55	52	51	37	73	47	18	50
93	Madagascar	49	28	22	86	77	66	33	50
94	Tanzania	51	34	21	57	88	56	46	49
95	Russia	47	26	74	75	33	62	42	49
96	Ghana	48	51	26	95	56	42	38	49
97	Nepal	53	35	34	89	56	57	28	49
98	Malawi	42	38	20	78	82	50	40	49
99	Kenya	41	33	25	72	92	45	44	48
100	Suriname	44	43	50	73	35	62	38	48
101	Laos	68	19	30	76	48	73	34	48
102	Colombia	47	46	62	30	61	46	28	48
103	Pakistan	24	26	31	92	72	63	41	47
104	Philippines	52	39	45	67	49	46	34	47
105	Gambia	47	38	21	79	57	58	31	46
106	Kyrgyzstan	36	27	57	58	48	71	30	46
107	Azerbaijan	46	24	70	38	56	64	19	46
108	Honduras	46	26	46	43	78	57	23	46
109	Guatemala	52	28	44	71	61	45	26	46
110	Bangladesh	43	26	44	74	50	61	33	45
111	Lebanon	10	25	65	76	71	41	46	45
112	El Salvador	59	39	49	21	66	50	14	45
113	Belarus	37	28	82	81	22	40	37	44
114	Cambodia	56	19	28	68	52	66	35	44
115	Uganda	48	30	14	62	71	57	37	44
116	Zambia	34	32	18	60	68	58	47	44
117	Lesotho	36	40	12	24	89	57	37	43
118	Gabon	48	25	32	52	44	46	73	43
119	Burma	31	24	32	63	50	73	33	42
120	Nicaragua	45	18	45	73	61	41	25	42
121	Togo	49	29	12	75	50	54	39	42
122	Tajikistan	51	13	53	58	48	51	34	42
123	Ivory Coast	47	36	11	58	52	57	37	42
124	Iran	19	15	60	79	56	43	40	42
125	Ethiopia	27	31	16	31	81	63	43	42
126	Burundi	31	11	9	62	76	66	54	41
127	Sierra Leone	38	34	6	69	43	64	48	41
128	Zimbabwe	29	14	13	74	91	37	36	39
129	Angola	27	24	10	55	63	53	31	36
130	Mozambique	36	26	10	4	80	53	36	36
131	Afghanistan	28	9	20	19	58	63	63	35
132	Iraq	16	12	42	29	37	75	33	34
133	Cameroon	40	19	9	27	60	51	34	34
134	Nigeria	18	24	12	23	53	57	41	32
135	Chad	46	12	0	31	50	49	44	32
136	Sudan	8	11	18	55	40	66	24	30
137	Congo (Dem. Republic)	32	7	6	10	54	60	36	29

 

You can read here which data can be found in the individual subject areas:

Economic and political stability

Indicators of medium- to long-term stability can be found in this area. In its "Worldwide Governance Indicators" project, the World Bank identifies a whole series of criteria for political consistency. From this, assessments of political stability and government effectiveness flowed into this area. Political stability also has the highest priority here.

On the economic side, an inflation rate of 0% was considered a theoretical optimum. So the bigger the deviation, the less attractive the views. Additional risk factors were government debt and budget deficits (in relation to gross domestic product), which, with higher values, also carry higher long-term risks. However, a balanced budget, or even a surplus, was seen as a positive signal. The country's unemployment rate was also included, as it indirectly leads to higher social expenditure and long-term unemployment is also a risk assessment of old-age pensions. As a rather subordinate aspect, the ratio of available money supply to currency reserves was also included as a longterm-safety criterion.

Legal system and civil rights

Political stability does not only have positive effects if they are based on dictatorial principles and if the people have no influence. The laws passed must not only sound good, but must also be implemented and complied with by the government. This subject area therefore primarily includes compliance with the "rule of law" and the regulatory quality of a government. In addition, other factors include democratic participation by the population and (with less emphasis) measures to combat corruption. In order to assess not only the measures against corruption, but also its perception by the population, the corruption index based on Transparency.org was also taken into account.

Health services

The most heavily weighted factor in the health sector is average life expectancy, which reflects other factors such as a regular and healthy nutrition. In addition, the drinking water supply, as well as the number of doctors and hospital beds in relation to the number of inhabitants were taken into account in this sector.

Safety

Even the most beautiful country cannot satisfy anyone when their life is in danger. The most important role in this area is played by the homicide rate of a country. In addition, data on displaced persons, violent crimes and wars were included.

Climate

For most emigrants, a pleasant climate is certainly the most obvious reason to leave home. The assessment of the climate is based on various studies that assume a maximum daily temperature of 25 °C at 55% humidity as the optimum environment. So the average temperature is a little lower. From a climatic point of view, this is not quite the dream of a Caribbean island, but from a medical point of view, Central Europeans feel particularly at home here. It should not be more or less than 8 rainy days per month. For each calendar month, the deviations were calculated and added to this theoretical optimum climate. A higher number of hours of daily sunshine also makes the climate more pleasant.

Costs and expenses

Even the best conditions are useless if one can't afford them. By far the most important factor in this area is the national cost of living, as this is the most important factor for living in the respective country. In relation to the costs, the average annual income was also included. Since this is often inversely proportional to the cost of living, in some countries these two individual factors are relativized. Therefore the annual income was weakened by a lower weighting. On the expenditure side, however, the taxes to be paid are also important. The maximum corporate and income tax rates were therefore also taken into account. In addition, the World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business Index" was included in the table of non-expats with a lower weighting.

Popularity

Deviating from the hard numbers of the remaining ranges also rather subjective evaluations should play a role, as long as they are present in a sufficiently large quantity. The general migration rate and the number of foreign tourists were therefore evaluated as indicators of a country's popularity. The United Nations World Happiness Report is also included here. A lower rating was also used to compare the refugee situation in the respective country. A higher number of foreign refugees results in higher popularity, while a high number of fleeing refugees reduces popularity.

 

Overall index

In order to arrive at an overall index for each country, the key figures for the 7 sub-sectors were included in an overall index in different proportions:

• Stability: 15%
• Civil rights: 20%
• Health and medical services: 15%
• Safety: 10%
• Climate: 15%
• Costs: 15%
• Popularity: 10%

Continuous updates of this page

The above table is continuously updated and is always based on the most current data available. The data basis does not have to come from the same year for all countries (as a rule, it is the last closed calendar year, currently 2021). If individual values for a country are not yet available, the most recent data from previous years are used. A total of 36 factors were used to calculate the quality of life. However, not all data must be available for all countries. To avoid inaccuracies, no countries have been listed for which less than 23 individual factors exist.

Data pool

Data from the following organisations were used to produce the quality of life indicators: The World Bank Group, CIA Factbook, OECD, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Transparency.org, UNHCR, German Weather Service and own researches.