Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, according to the 2007 U.N. Human Development Index Tuesday. Sub-Saharan African countries were listed at the bottom.
Wealthy countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States dropping to 12th place from eighth last year.
The U.N. Human Development Index is an annual U.N. table blending 2005 figures for life expectancy, educational levels and real per capita income, finds that all 22 countries falling into its "low human development" category are in sub-Saharan Africa, with Sierra Leone last. In 10 of these countries, 40% of children will not reach the age of 40.
The index ranks 175 U.N. countries plus Hong Kong and the Palestinian territories. It does not include 17 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, because of inadequate data.
Norway had held the top spot for six years but was edged into second place by Iceland this year because of new life expectancy estimates and updated figures for gross domestic product (GDP), the report said.
The United States scores high on real per capita GDP, which at $41,890 is second only to that of Luxembourg ($60,228), but scores low on life expectancy, tied for last in the top 26 countries, along with Denmark and South Korea, at 77.9 years. Per capita GDP is 45 times higher in Iceland than in Sierra Leone.
Japanese have the longest life expectancy at 82.3 years, while Zambians are the lowest, at 40.5.
The report said most countries had seen their human development index rise over the last 30 years, but in 16 it was lower than in 1990, and in three (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe) lower than in 1975.
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