Russia Has A Lot To Accomplish?

Russia holds 51st place in the ranking of the best places in the world to live, compiled by U.S. magazine Newsweek. It lags behind even the traditionally impoverished Cuba. The ranking considered a combination of factors: education, quality of life, economic dynamics and political situation. Finland is leading the list.

Switzerland and Sweden took second and third positions, respectively, followed by Australia, Luxembourg, Norway, Canada, Holland, Japan and Denmark. U.S. took only 11^th place in the overall rankings. The bottom of the list is occupied by Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia and Uganda.

With respect to certain categories of rating, the worst thing in Russia, according to the authors of the list, is the political situation. And also, which is more alarming, the situation with the health sector. For both these sectors the country ranked 75th. With respect to health sector, this is similar to Ukraine, Indonesia, Guatemala and Egypt, but worse than El Salvador, Iran and Algeria.

In regards to the level of education, Newsweek placed Russia at number 31. It was preceded by Slovakia and Luxembourg, and followed by Spain and Norway. In respect to the dynamic development of economy, Russia took 36th place, following Estonia, Belarus and Qatar, but ahead of the Czech Republic, India and Thailand. The quality of life in Russia was ranked 50th. Ahead were Azerbaijan, Malaysia and Chile. The overall ranking is 51st. Russia is ahead of Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the Dominican Republic and Belarus. However, Russia lags behind Cuba, Ukraine, Brazil, Jamaica and Argentina.

The magazine also revealed the leaders of specific indicators in the various subcategories. Ukraine is the leader among low-income countries in the level of education sector, and Kazakhstan is leading among middle-income countries. The champion in the quality of life category is Norway. According to UN estimates, it boasts the highest level of life, the socio-economic equality and great environment. The highest economic dynamics is in Singapore. Sweden has the most promising political situation in the world.

As for the leaders in the regions of the world, the best country in North America was Canada, and in Latin America the leader was Chile (30^th place). The five leaders of the region included Costa Rica (35), Panama (41), Peru (42) and Uruguay (44). Honduras (76), Bolivia (77) and Guatemala (84) were on the bottom of the list.

Australia (4), Japan (9) and New Zealand (13) were the best countries in East Asia and Oceania. Life is not easy in the Philippines (63), Indonesia (73) and Vietnam (81). In South Asia, the leader is Sri Lanka (66), India placed 78^th, and Bangladesh – 88th. The worst country in the region was Pakistan (89).

The Middle East and North Africa: the best representatives were Israel (22nd place), Kuwait (40) and UAE (43). Syria (83), Algeria (85) and Yemen (92) belong to the poorer countries of the region.

In Central and South Africa's relatively tolerable situation is in Botswana, South Africa and Ghana. And close to the bottom of the list are the worst at global scale Cameroon, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

Vladimir Shabanov.