Today, I want to talk about the different countries in the world.
Determine which country is best in the world.
I want to analyze different factors like environment, economy, education and then conclude which is the best country in the world.
Consider this post as a sequel to my previous post which talks about the best state in India.
I used the same method of analysis and conclusion in it. If you haven't seen it, I would suggest you follow that first.
And on that note, let's start! The first criteria to note is HDI, the Human Development Index
It measures three main criteria
The life expectancy, education level, and income of an average person in a country.
These are some of the most important tools to know if a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped.
United Nations Development Program releases a human Development report every year with yearly HDI rankings. In the 2016 rankings, Norway topped this list.
After which, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Singapore follow at the next 5 rankings and India ranks at 131 out of 186 countries on the list.
The first 50 countries on the list are classified as developed countries.
The second criteria are unemployment and the country which has the lowest rate of unemployment is Qatar.
Only 0.1% of its population is unemployed. Thailand, Belarus, Myanmar, and Cambodia fill the next spots.
All these countries have a less than 1% rate of unemployment. These ranking however are not very credible because every country classifies unemployment in their way
A lot of the countries that have topped this list are poor and have managed to do so by hiding underemployment in employment rates.
India ranks at 122 with an unemployment rate of 8.8%. We need to keep in mind that developed countries have in place a welfare system which often means that an unemployed person will receive money and other benefits from the state.
However, this is not the case for poor countries where the poor have to find work and earn money to be able to eat food and to survive as they have nothing to depend on.
This makes the unemployment rankings a bit unreliable which is why we shouldn't be too focused on it.
The third criteria are the Nominal Gross Domestic Product U.S.A tops this list with a GDP of 20,000 billion dollars after which China, Japan, German and France follow India ranks at number 7 which is considered quite high.
However, we all should keep in mind that the GDP is affected by the population of the country. A big population often inflates GDP which means GDP numbers are often useless.
The ranking that matters is the GDP per person of a country. When the total population is divided by the total GDP of the country. Thus, GDP per capita rankings are much more important here.
In the 2017 rankings, Luxembourg tops this list. This is a small country in Europe. Which Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, and Qatar follow.
Now since we look at our GDP per capita in India, we fall way down in the list and come at 140 out of 186 countries.
Nominal GDP and GDP per capita are calculated by IMF. The next criteria aren't that important when we talk about the best country in the world, however, some people will find it extremely important.
This is the 'Sex Ratio' of the country. If we look at the countries with a higher number of females than males, Curacao tops the list which is a small island in the Caribbean controlled by the Netherlands.
It has 121 females forever 100 males after which Latvia, Martinique, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia follow.
All of these are East European countries with a ratio of more than 116 females per male in the country.
Now, some people would consider the best countries to be those with more males. Qatar tops that list with only 30 females for every 100 males
This list is followed by countries like UAE (43/100), Oman (53/100), Bahrain (61/100), Kuwait (67/100). India ranks at 192 out of the 200 countries which were ranked.
We have 93 females for every 100 males. The next criteria are ease of doing business. In the 2018 ranking, New Zealand tops the list. After which, Singapore, Denmark, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the USA follow.
Countries like Somalia, Venezuela, and Yemen are at the bottom of this list. Investing in businesses in these countries would be a bad idea. India ranks at 100 in 2018.
Last year, India ranked at 130. This is a huge leap and the reason India has done so well is complicated and I may someday make a post about it. The next criteria is one of the most important in my opinion,
It is the Environmental Protection Index (EPI). It measures a plethora of factors as you can see in the chart behind me but we can place all these factors into two main areas The first is 'Environmental Health' which looks at air pollution, availability of clean drinking water, level of sanitation amongst others.
The second area is 'Ecosystem Vitality' This examines a country's biodiversity, forest cover and flora & fauna Switzerland tops this list.
After which, France, Denmark, Malta, Sweden, and the UK follow. Here, India ranks at 177 out of 180 countries, which makes India one of the worst countries in the EPI Index.
Moreover, if we only consider the first category - 'Environmental Health' which includes air quality, clean water, cleanliness, and sanitation India ranks at 180 which is the last rank on the list.
All other countries in the World are better than India 180th out of 180.
We have the worst air and water quality in the world. EPI is released by Yale University and this data is the latest (for 2018)
The next criteria are also very important. It is 'Inequality'. The divide between the poor and the rich of the country. It is measured in the GINI Index According to which, Ukraine tops the list- with the least amount of inequality.
After which, Slovenia, Norway, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic follow. These have the lowest inequality. India ranks at 58.
The worst countries for inequality are South Africa and Russia. Happiness is also an important criterion. And according to the World Happiness Report, which judges different factors to determine how happy is the average person of a country.
Factors like the freedom to make life choices, social support, generosity, life expectancy, and even GDP are considered to make the report.
In the 2017 report, Norway tops the list. After which, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, and the Netherlands follow.
India ranks at 122 out of 155 countries. It is shameful that India ranks below countries like Iraq, Somalia, Iran, and Pakistan.
The last criteria I will talk about is the 'World Education Rankings' which test the average education level of a child in a country and their math, scientific, and linguistic abilities 15-year-olds of different countries are tested in Reading, Math, and Science after which countries are ranked.
These rankings are done by an organization called OECD. They ranked 80 countries. India wasn't ranked in this list. The list was topped by South Korea.
Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia follow. So which country is the best country in the world?
What do you think?
Now, according to me, this is not an easy choice. It depends we pointed out different criteria and it is one's own choice to give more importance to one criterion over the other.
You can choose HDI, Happiness, or any other criteria as the most important criteria. So, the best country is often your perspective but if we give equal weightage to all the 10 barometers I mentioned Norway is the best country!
And according to me Happiness and HDI are the most important indicators to measure a country.
There are many more indicators to rank countries US News and the University of Pennsylvania release a yearly report of the best countries in the world
and uses many other indicators other than those I have mentioned in this post like 'heritage' or the history of the country.
Its cultural attraction, its food and other things like that are given importance. It also measures a country's cultural influence in the world, how dynamic it is, how different, unique or distinctive it is, and how unique is its culture.
So, Norway might be the best country according to HDI but the size of Norway's cultural history, or its cultural influence in the world, are often ignored in that index.
Based on all these indicators US News declares Switzerland as the best country. The next 5 are Canada, Germany, UK, Japan, and Sweden
Here, India ranks 25th out of 80 countries. India ranks good but ranks the worst in the environmental index only because India's heritage and cultural influence are prominent.
Friends, I hope this post helped you gain more knowledge. If you liked this post, please don't forget to share it with your friends and families.
All the information I've told you is from sources is very important.
You should always look out for sources when you consume Indian or any other media Sources like UN or World factbook are legit and popular sources. If Indian media uses these resources their reports could be credible, but if they don't, the credibility of their news can be doubtful.
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