1. Introduction:
One of my perennial concerns is the relative health and well-being of various countries. For example, I fret a lot about Mexico’s descent into lawlessness and anarchy. There used to be a saying, when the US stole Mexican territory and preyed upon Mexico in other ways as well, "Poor Mexico, so far away from God and so near the United States." Today, this could be reversed: "Poor America, so near Mexico." Could the narco-mayhem south of the border ebb over into the US?
The term "failed state" comes to mind. We know that some countries, for example Somalia, have ceased to be "countries" in any meaningful sense except as a swath of surface on a paper map. Is our next-door neighbor in danger of emulating places such as Somalia? Of approaching disintegration?
But the question is generic: How do different countries stack up, or rank, overall?
One of my perennial concerns is the relative health and well-being of various countries. For example, I fret a lot about Mexico’s descent into lawlessness and anarchy. There used to be a saying, when the US stole Mexican territory and preyed upon Mexico in other ways as well, "Poor Mexico, so far away from God and so near the United States." Today, this could be reversed: "Poor America, so near Mexico." Could the narco-mayhem south of the border ebb over into the US?
The term "failed state" comes to mind. We know that some countries, for example Somalia, have ceased to be "countries" in any meaningful sense except as a swath of surface on a paper map. Is our next-door neighbor in danger of emulating places such as Somalia? Of approaching disintegration?
But the question is generic: How do different countries stack up, or rank, overall?
2. The Annual “Failed State” Index:
One pretty good source is the “2013 Failed States Index,” the “Annual Special Report by Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace.”
(http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/24/2013_failed_states_interactive_map).
This publication scores 178 countries on twelve indicators that measure social, economic, political and military variables. The higher a country’s combined score is, the closer it is to being a “failed state.”
Here are the twelve indicators:
Social: 1. Demographic Pressures, including diseases and food scarcity.
2. Refugees, IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons).
3. Group Grievances, ethnic discrimination.
4. Human Flight and brain drain.
Economic: 5. Uneven Development, inequality.
6. Poverty and Economic Decline, debt, unemployment, per capita GDP.
Pol. & Military: 7. State Legitimacy, corruption, democracy, drug trade.
8. Public Services, crime, education, healthcare, roads.
9. Human Rights, press and political freedom, incarceration, executions.
10. Security Apparatus, riots, coups, rebellions.
11. Factionalized Elites, power struggles.
12. Foreign military intervention, foreign assistance.
As mentioned, the study ranks 178 countries from “best” to “worst.” The lower a country is on the list, the closer it is to being a failed state. That is, the more it suffers from: demographic and public health problems, poverty and other economic problems, ethnic strife and discrimination, the absence of democracy and self-determination, the absence of the rule of law and of human rights, poorly developed public services, education and transportation, police state practices, and the need for foreign economic and military intervention.
This index is comprehensive enough to simply say that the list ranks the world’s countries in terms of - essentially - the “best” to the “worst.” From countries in which human life is most felicitous to where it is most hellish.
In Table One, I list 31 countries of special interest:
Table One: 31 Selected Countries ranked from "Best" to "Worst," i.e. to most "Failed State" status.
Country
|
Rank
|
Comment
|
Finland
|
1
|
best
country in the world
|
Sweden
|
2
|
|
Norway
|
3
|
|
Switzerland
|
4
|
|
Denmark
|
5
|
|
Iceland
|
8
|
|
Canada
|
11
|
|
Netherlands
|
12
|
|
Germany
|
14
|
|
France
|
17
|
|
Britain
|
19
|
|
US
|
20
|
|
Singapore
|
21
|
best
country in Asia
|
Japan
|
23
|
|
Uruguay
|
24
|
best
country in Latin America
|
Italy
|
32
|
|
Hungary
|
38
|
|
Brazil
|
53
|
|
Botswana
|
58
|
best
country in Africa
|
Mexico
|
82
|
|
Russia
|
99
|
worst
country in Europe
|
India
|
100
|
|
Indonesia
|
103
|
|
Israel/West
Bank
|
110
|
|
China
|
113
|
|
Bangladesh
|
150
|
|
Nigeria
|
163
|
|
Pakistan
|
166
|
|
Iraq
|
168
|
|
Afghanistan
|
172
|
|
Somalia
|
178
|
worst
country in the world
|
3. The US and other highlights:
Looking at the report, a few facts jump at us right away: For one thing, European countries are highly over-represented among the "best" countries. All five Scandinavian countries are in the top ten - Finland is number #1, Norway #2, Sweden #3, Denmark #5 and Iceland #8.
The United States is in 20th place. This may
cause simple-minded jingoists to
stop reading and throw away this
article. 20th place is
unacceptable to those who continue to blindly believe - contrary to empirical evidence - that life in the US is
incomparably better than anywhere else.
However, if you bear with me, I’ll show you that this country’s 20th place, out of 178, is respectable. Keep in mind that we rank 20th overall, when averaging all twelve indicators. Like other countries, the US has its strengths and its weaknesses. I will shortly point some of these out.
Finland ranks as the best country in the world overall - if 6-months long nights and polar freezing conditions don’t bother you. Switzerland is near the top. Our next-door neighbor Canada ranks quite high as well. The larger Western European countries - Germany, France, Britain - are in the same league as the US, somewhat ahead of the US but not significantly so. Japan is a bit behind the US, but not significantly so. The best Latin American country, Uruguay, is number 24. Italy, delightful to visit, struggles in 32nd position, as does my country of birth, Hungary, in 38th place. The best African country, Botswana, cannot do better than 58. Our southern neighbor, plagued by drug wars, is number 82. Russia is the worst European country, at number 99, barely ahead of India, which is in 100th position.
Israel does poorly at 110, due to its Palestinian problem. China may boast to be the world’s new economic power house, but it ranks a very poor 113th. Iraq and Afghanistan, the two countries where the US has been waging war over the past decade, are among the world’s very worst countries, at 168 and 172. Finally, Somalia, at 178, is the worst place on earth.
4. The US and other individual countries’ strengths and weaknesses:
In Table Two, I present the twelve indicators, and I show which countries score the highest and the lowest on each. In addition, I give the results for the US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and France.
Table Two : How do various countries score on separate indicators of socio-economic and political well-being?
1. Demo-graphic
pro-blems
|
2.
Refu-gees (IDP)
|
3. Group
Grie-vances, discrim-ination
|
4.
Flight, brain drain
|
5. Uneven dev., Inequa-lity
|
6.pov-erty,
econ. decline
|
7.state
legiti-
macy
|
8. Public services
deterio-ration
|
9. Human
rights, rule of law
|
10.
Security
apparatus,
police
|
11.
Factio-nalized elites
|
12.
Exter-nal inter-vention
|
|
Best
|
Iceland
|
New Zealand
|
Iceland
|
US
|
Finland
|
Luxem-bourg
|
Sweden
|
Luxembourg
|
Nether-lands
|
Iceland
|
Switz-erland
|
New Zealand/
US
|
Worst
|
Congo
(D.R.)
|
Sudan
|
Iraq
|
Haiti
|
Angola
|
Haiti
|
North
Korea
|
Chad
|
Somalia
|
Somalia
|
Sudan
|
Sudan
|
US
|
3.0 (23rd
)
|
2.3 (26th)
|
4.2 (39th)
|
1.0 (1st)
|
4.8
(36th) |
3.2 (15th)
|
2.3 (21st)
|
2.4
(23rd)
|
3.2 (35th)
|
2.2
(17th ) |
3.9 (37th )
|
1.0
(1st) |
Canada
|
18th
|
19th
|
11th
|
12th
|
15th
|
3rd
|
11th
|
17th
|
15th
|
13th
|
16th
|
1st
|
Ger-
many
|
9th
|
58th !
|
44th !
|
16th
|
24th
|
10th
|
9th
|
12th
|
13th
|
18th
|
14th
|
11th
|
Nether-
lands
|
23rd
|
29th
|
32nd
|
15th
|
9th
|
19th
|
8th
|
5th
|
1st
|
11th
|
10th
|
12th
|
France
|
19th
|
22nd
|
81st!
|
9th
|
28th
|
38th
|
20th
|
8th
|
19th
|
21st
|
13th
|
10th
|
Table Two shows what the strengths and the weaknesses of the United States are: This country ranks number one on attracting immigrants and benefitting from other countries’ brain drain. We are also the least likely to depend on foreign intervention, either economic or military.
On the other hand, there is in America a substantial amount of ethnic inequality and discrimination (rank: 39), there is much power struggle between our various elites (rank: 37), a high degree of economic inequality (rank: 36) and human rights violations (rank: 35). These are the four aspects of American society which need the greatest improvement.
5. On the whole, small countries are the best countries:
Every single one of the world’s thirteen highest ranked countries is either very small, or relatively small. Canada and Australia are large only in area. Their populations are 35 million and 22 million, respectively. That is less than California. The other top thirteen countries range in population from 300,000 (Iceland) to 17 million (Netherlands).
In addition, there are six other countries which also rank higher than the US. Only three of them are mid-sized countries: Slightly ahead of the US are Germany (#14), France (#17) and Great Britain (#19).
Table Three lists the nine largest (by population) countries of the world.
Table Three: Large Countries Are Bad Countries - Except the US.
Country
|
Population
|
rank, in terms of quality
|
China
|
1.36 billion
|
113
|
India
|
1.23 billion
|
100
|
United States
|
317 million
|
20
|
Indonesia
|
237 million
|
103
|
Brazil
|
194 million
|
53
|
Pakistan
|
184 million
|
166
|
Nigeria
|
174 million
|
163
|
Bangladesh
|
153 million
|
150
|
Russia
|
143 million
|
99
|
Table Three shows that the rankings of the world’s largest countries range from mediocre to terrible - with one exception: the United States.
It is more difficult to provide a large country with a good government and with a high quality of life than it is to do so for a small country. Large countries inevitably have large pockets of backwardness and dysfunction, which set them back. For example, the South has always been an albatross around the neck of the United States. Despite this, America as a whole ranks relatively high. There are regions in the United States - the two coasts, Minnesota, etc - where the quality of life equals those of Scandinavia, regions which dwarf the size of Scandinavian countries.
It is more reasonable to compare the United States - or North America, of which the US makes up 90% - with Europe. When we do that, The United States and North America rank somewhat higher than does Europe.
6. How do the world’s Continents rank?
Table Four classifies the world’s 178 countries into six regional/continental groups: Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, Europe, and North America. It also divides the world’s countries into three groups: the top 60, the middle 59 and the worst 59. It then shows the proportion of "good," "mediocre," and "bad" countries in each region.
Africa
|
Asia (incl. Mideast)
|
Oceania
|
Latin Am.
|
Europe
|
North Am.
|
Total
|
|
worst 59 countries
|
35 (66%)
|
20 (43%)
|
2 (25%)
|
2 (7%)
|
0 (0%)
|
0 (0%)
|
59
|
mid 59 countries
|
15 (28%)
|
16 (35%)
|
4 (50%)
|
16 (55%)
|
8 (20%)
|
0 (0%)
|
59
|
best 60 countries
|
3 (6%)
|
10 (22%)
|
2 (25%)
|
11 (38%)
|
32 (80%)
|
2 (100%)
|
60
|
total
|
53
|
46
|
8
|
29
|
40
|
2
|
178
|
Table Four shows that North America is by far the best continent: All of it consists of the “world’s best countries” category. In second position is Europe, 80% of whose countries are among the world’s best, 20% among the world’s mediocre countries, and none among the world’s worst. In third place is Latin America, where 38% of the countries are among the world’s best, 55% in the “middle of the pack,” and 7% among the world’s worst. Oceania follows. There, a quarter of the countries are among the world’s best, half among the world’s “medium” quality countries, and a quarter among the world’s worst. Asia is the world’s second most problematic continent: only 22% of Asian countries are among the world’s best. 35% are in the middle of the pack, and 43% are among the world’s worst. Finally Africa: Only 6% of African countries are among the world’s best, 28% are in the middle group, and two thirds of all African countries are among the world’s worst countries. Table Five sums this up:
Table Five: The World’s Major
Regions/Continents Ranked From Best to Worst
Continent/Region
|
Rank - from best to worst
|
North America
|
1
|
Europe
|
2
|
Latin America
|
3
|
Oceania
|
4
|
Asia
|
5
|
Africa
|
6
|
7. In Conclusion: The object of this exercise has been to offer a quick, fact-based picture of the relative position of the various countries and regions of the world in terms of the overall quality of life. Simply, in which countries and on which continents do people live happy, non-violent, prosperous and free lives, and where do they not?
Most international comparisons and generalizations are based on prejudice, stereotypes, nationalism and subjective taste. While this article does not claim profound scholarship, most of the comparisons and generalizations I have presented are fact-based. Hopefully this is an improvement. leave comment here
