Country Comparisons - 193 Countries

 

Recently I was pondering the current world situation as the result of recent events viz the Myanmar military coup, the annexation of Crimea, the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukraine border, the military coup in Thailand and the violent political events in Belarus and Hong Kong. Along with the suppression of opposition in Russia plus China’s Global Hegemony ambitions, backed by serious military and territorial ambitions in the South China Sea along with sabre-rattling against Taiwan.

 

I was reminded of Orwell’s 1984 new world order and how it seems to be taking shape in today’s world.

 

Then I remembered a story I read many years ago about a young couple (Canadian I think) and their two children. Worried about the threat of armed conflict in the world and especially nuclear war, they pondered where would be the best place in the world to live. After much study they sold up in Canada, using the money to buy a smallholding in the Falklands and moved there, just 2 years before Galtieri’s Argentine Military Dictatorship invaded in 1982.

 

So where would the best place to live be today I thought if you were worrying about the state of the world?

 

In the Philippines, there is a penchant in the newspapers for reporting world rankings by various organisations on many subjects, and the Philippines position in them – usually an unsatisfactory position.

 

Looking on the internet I could not find a website that combined these various reports so decided to do my own analysis. If looking for an ideal place to live (excluding weather, which can be so variable within a single country depending on the location within it), what criteria should be looked at as a starting point?

 

I came up with the following and incorporated the results into a fully filterable spreadsheet. See spreadsheet details at bottom of page.

 

Freedom and Fairness

Fairest countries for women

Freedoms of thought, conscience and religion

Freedom of association

Press freedom

Levels of democracy

Social mobility availability

 

Healthcare

Overall healthcare availability

 

Education

Overall educational standards

 

Crime & Corruption

Levels of corruption

Levels of crime

Levels of homicide

 

 

Global

Potential for country failure

Environment protection

 

Details of ranking methodology

 

Fairest Countries for Women

 

Scores are based on: -

·        Inclusion (Government representation, cell phone use, employment, financial access, education)

·        Security (Intimate partner violence, community safety, organised violence)

·        Justice (Discriminatory norms, son bias, legal discrimination)

 

Repeated numbers indicate a tie

 

Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion

 

1 Unhampered freedom of religion.

2 Minor restraints on freedom of religion. Limited to a few isolated cases.

3 Major religious movements are repressed or prohibited. Some officially recognised religious practice exists.

4. Any religious practice is government-controlled and severely restricted.

 

Freedom of Assembly and Association

 

The extent to which individuals and groups have freedom of assembly and association, that is, the right of citizens to gather freely and carry out peaceful demonstrations as well as to join, form and participate with other persons in political parties, cultural organizations, trade unions or the like of their own volition without being subject to limitations or restrictions.

 

Press Freedom

 

Press freedom levels are reported by Reporters Without Borders, who have a complex ranking system, more simplified for general use by: -

 

1 Good.

2 Satisfactory

3 Problematic

4 Difficult

5 Very Serious

 

Democracy

 

1 Full Democracy (civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are not only respected but also reinforced by a political culture conducive to the thriving of democratic principles. These nations have a valid system of governmental checks and balances, an independent judiciary whose decisions are enforced, governments that function adequately, and diverse and independent media. These nations have only limited problems in democratic functioning)

 

2 Flawed Democracy (elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are honoured but may have issues (e.g. media freedom infringement and minor suppression of political opposition and critics). These nations have significant faults in other democratic aspects, including underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance)

 

3 Hybrid Regime (regular electoral frauds, preventing them from being fair and free democracies. These nations commonly have governments that apply pressure on political opposition, non-independent judiciaries, widespread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on the media, anaemic rule of law, and more pronounced faults than flawed democracies in the realms of underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance)

 

4 Authoritarian (nations where political pluralism is nonexistent or severely limited. These nations are often absolute monarchies or dictatorships, may have some conventional institutions of democracy but with meagre significance, infringements and abuses of civil liberties are commonplace, elections (if they take place) are not fair and free, the media is often state-owned or controlled by groups associated with the ruling regime, the judiciary is not independent, and censorship and suppression of governmental criticism are commonplace)

 

Social Mobility

 

Which countries give everyone a chance to succeed

 

Overall Healthcare

 

Based on the 2000 World Health Organisation’s ranking system.

There is however no consensus about how an objective world health system ranking should be compiled.

 

The WHO attempted an analysis of how countries performed around

·        Life Expectancy

·        Speed of Service

·        Quality of Amenities

·        Fair Financial Contribution.

 

Not unexpectedly, there was heavy criticism of the rankings from all sides, although just as many as the critics commended the ranking.

Later analysis from other organisations shows that "the U.S. spends the most on health care on a relative cost basis with the worst outcome” and notes Cubans live longer than Americans, but Americans pay more than fourteen times as much for less effective health care.

The Commonwealth Fund ranked seven developed countries on health care, the US ranked lowest.

 

Although the USA has some of the finest hospitals in the world – overall healthcare is the criteria in this analysis.

 

Education

 

Best Countries for Education are ranked based on a perception-based global survey, which used a compilation of scores from three equally weighted country attributes: having a well-developed public education system, whether people would consider attending university there and if that country provides a top-quality education.

 

Corruption

 

Perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people. Analysis shows corruption is more pervasive where big money flows freely into electoral campaigns and where governments only listen to the wealthy or well connected.

 

Repeat scores indicate a tie.

 

Crime Index

 

The number of reported crimes, divided by total country population, times 10,000.

 

Homicide

 

Intentional (excluding accidental) homicides per 100,000 of the country’s population.

 

Fragile States Index

 

Twelve conflict risk indicators are used to measure the condition of a state at any given moment, assessing the vulnerability of states to collapse.

 

The same number indicates a tie

 

Environment

 

Overall rankings indicate which countries are best addressing the environmental challenges that every nation faces.

 

Colour

 

I have used colour to improve the spreadsheets visualization.

Also many countries are not ranked in some of the metrics, therefore although marked as 'Not ranked' I have however incorporated an appropriate colour based on other research. E.g., Taiwan is not ranked in healthcare because it is not a member of the WHO due to objections from China, yet has excellent healthcare facilities, therefore is coloured green. Cuba is not ranked in Education because it does not partake in the ranking system, yet has the best education in the Caribbean, therefore is coloured orange, etc.

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What does all this mean for an average family? Well, we have lived in countries that have some very poor scores related to freedoms - Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar - which however have high levels of employment and very low corruption and crime levels. Provided you live a normal life and do not have any political or religious agendas you are trying to push, these are very pleasant places to live. Quality secondary and higher education for children being the main drawback.

The Philippines has more freedoms, yet suffers rampant corruption, with heavy oligarchic and theocratic influence, which makes life more difficult here and less attractive that the 3 Middle East locations.

Obviously, countries that are green in all categories, or mainly green with some yellow, should indicate ideal places to live.

 

There are of course many other personal preferences to take into account - employment, cost of living, climate etc.

 

Spreadsheet / PDF

 

Because this Jimdo website cannot directly handle an Excel spreadsheet I have converted it to a PDF file which can be downloaded.

 

Alternatively, to convert the PDF file back to a fully functioning spreadsheet do the following:

 

1 Download the Acrobat PDF file to your computer.

2 Log on to https://www.adobe.com/sea/acrobat/online/pdf-to-excel.html

3 Upload the downloaded PDF file from your computer.

4 Convert the PDF file to Excel on the website.

5 Download the converted Excel file from the website and open it

6 Click the warning to enable editing

7 Highlight all the columns (A to N)

8 Then press Control+shift+L (this will bring up all the filters)

Done!