Sweden has climbed one step and is now no 5 in the UN's Human Development Index (HDI), which measures prosperity. HDI measures three dimensions of human development: life expectancy, educational level and income (GDP per capita).
HDI top 10
1. Norway (nothing beats that oil)
2. Iceland (tiny country)
3. Australia (oh, that sun)
4. Ireland (thanks the EU millions)
5. Sweden (paradise)
6. Canada (about)
7. Japan (happy to see that Japan is making a comeback)
8. USA (but major inequalities)
9. Switzerland (duh, banking!)
10. The Netherlands (Holland is just a part of the NL)
At the other end of the spectrum in place 177 is Niger, followed by Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau.
According to the report the distance between the world's richest and poorest countries is growing fast - sadly. HDI is a part of the UN's development programme's (UNDP) yearly Human Development Report. This year the report focusses on the growing water and sanitary crises in great parts of the world. The situation south of the Sahara desert in Africa is grim. No progress has been made and the HDI for these countries is roughly the same as the beginning of the 1990s, mainly due to the HIV/Aids pandemic. The average life expectancy is just 46, which is lower than 30 years ago (and almost half of Sweden's 80+). Norwegians are 40 times richer than the unfortunate inhabitants of Niger. Swaziland's life expectancy is only 31.3 years on average. That's my age at some time next year.
God, I feel so lucky having been born in Sweden!
Hej Anna!
ReplyDeleteI've found your blog totally by an accident, but when I've read several of your posts, I got an idea to write you something. At first - sorry for my poor english speech, I'm a Pole and my national language is Polish, I'm learning english since last 5-6 years but it's still imperfect.
Let me introduce myself - Tomasz Klimas. I'm an owner of blog at blogspot too, available at zarosniety.blogspot.com ['zarosniety' means 'long-haired' in Polish - i'm long-haired already :-)]. You see, I live in Poland nowadays but I don't describe myself as a patriot - I want to move out, probably to Sweden. Exactly, to sweden, I just love your country! It's so beautiful, awesome and breathaking, jeeez! I went to Stockholm two years ago for a short trip an I was amazed! Really, you must be proud to live in Sweden.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading your blog and keep on writing new post! I'm highly keen into reading new things about Sweden.
If you would get some free time and good mood, feel free to write me :-) My email's rolnik@gmail.com.
cheers and greetings from Poland!
Tomasz Klimas
Tomasz, thanks for the kind words about my writing. Glad you like it! Keep on visiting me! Will check out your blog too.
ReplyDeleteEvery Friday I give my students a news quiz and last Friday, there was a question about which country had the number 1 position. Everyone guessed the US and couldn't believe that Sweden was ahead of the states. Interesting...
ReplyDeleteAnd Norway will never be anything else than number 1 it seems. And I have never even been...
You would think that upper secondary school pupils, at least, would know that the USA is not a the top of all list, rather the opposite.
ReplyDeleteI've only been to Oslo and some very small towns near the Swedish border, but I recommend you go!