10 Best Countries for Quality of Life

An interesting and sometimes fun way to find out about how where you live measures up to other cities and countries is through global rankings. I have often written about how Toronto or Canada measures up in posts like the smartest countries, the happiest countries, the best countries to live, the  most peaceful countries, the most sustainable countries, the friendliest countries, the most charitable countries, the most prosperous countries, the most livable city, the most competitive city, the best city to live, the greenest city and the best city for opportunity. I most recently wrote about the best city for quality of living  and today I’ll be expanding on this post by adding the Conference Board of Canada’s top 10 countries with the best quality of life.

The mission of the Conference Board of Canada is to build “leadership capacity for a better Canada by creating and sharing insights on economic trends, public policy and organizational performance.” When compiling this list they compared 17 developed nations. The areas taken into consideration for this ranking were “jobless youth rate, disabled income level, elderly poverty rate, child poverty rate, working-age poverty rate, income inequality, income mobility, gender income gap, voter turnout, confidence in parliament, homicide rate, burglary rate, life satisfaction, acceptance of diversity, social network support, suicide rate.”

Based on the Conference Board of Canada criteria, the 10 best Countries for quality of life are:

• 10) Germany – Average grade: B. Highest grade: A in elderly poverty rate, homicide rate, and burglary rate. Lowest grade: D in confidence in parliament.
  

  Ontario, Canada

• 9) Ireland – Average grade: B. Highest grade: A in elderly poverty rate, gender income gap, homicide rate, burglary rate, acceptance of diversity, and social network support. Lowest grade: D in jobless youth rate, and disabled income level.
• 8) Belgium – Average grade: B. Highest grade: A in income inequality, gender income gap, voter turnout, and homicide rate. Lowest grade: D in suicide.
• 7) Canada – Average grade: B. Highest grade: A in disabled income level, elderly poverty rate, income mobility, homicide rate, life satisfaction, and acceptance of diversity. Lowest grade: D in working-age poverty rate.
• 6) Austria – Average grade: A. Highest grade: A in jobless youth rate, disabled income level, elderly poverty rate, child poverty rate, working-age poverty rate, income inequality, homicide rate, and life satisfaction. Lowest grade: C in gender income gap, burglary rate, acceptance of diversity, and suicide rate.
• 5) Finland – Average grade: A. Highest grade: A in jobless disabled income level, child poverty rate, working-age poverty rate, income inequality, income mobility, confidence in parliament, burglary rate, life satisfaction. Lowest grade: C in gender income gap, acceptance of diversity, and suicide rate.
• 4) Netherlands – Average grade: A. Highest grade: A in jobless youth rate, disabled income level, elderly poverty rate, homicide rate, life satisfaction, acceptance of diversity, and suicide rate. Lowest grade: C in confidence in parliament,
• 3) Sweden – Average grade: A. Highest grade: A in disabled income level, elderly poverty rate, child poverty rate, income inequality, voter turnout, confidence in parliament, homicide rate, life satisfaction. Lowest grade: C in social network support.
• 2) Norway – Average grade: A. Highest grade: A in jobless youth rate, disabled income level, elderly poverty rate, child poverty rate, income inequality, income mobility, gender income gap, homicide rate, burglary rate, and life satisfaction. Lowest grade: C in working-age poverty rate.
• 1) Denmark – Average grade: A. Highest grade: A in Highest grade: A in jobless youth rate, voter turnout, homicide rate, acceptance of diversity, and social network support. Lowest grade: D disabled income level and elderly poverty rate

Congratulations to Canada for its placement but disappointed to learn that more than 11 per cent of working-age Canadians live in relative poverty which is triple the rate of Denmark and double that of Switzerland, Finland, and Austria. Canada’s working-age poverty rate increased from 9.4 per cent in the mid-1990s to 11.1 per cent in the late 2000s which results in Canada’s relative grade to drop from a “C” to a “D.” We can and should do better.

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