Norway, Sweden, Canada Head Quality of Life Index

Norway for the second year ranked first and the United States sixth as the best country in which to live, said a UN report released on Wednesday. The report's index attempts to measure broad categories of quality of life such as education and life expectancy as well as per capita income. Heading the list of 173 nations were Norway, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Australia, United States, Iceland, Netherlands, Japan, Finland, Switzerland, France, Britain, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Italy. Those at the bottom include Senegal, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Benin, Guinea, Gambia, Angola, Rwanda, Malawi, Mali, Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and Sierra Leone. The number of people with a subsistence living in Africa rose from 242 million to 300 million in the 1990s. Some 20 nations in sub-Saharan Africa are poorer now than in 1990 and 23 are poorer than in 1975, the report said.

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