The Economist Intelligence Unit

Economist Intelligence Unit

The Economist Intelligence Unit is part of the Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S. company acquired by the parent organization in 1986...

’s quality-of-life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective

Subjectivity

Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...

 life-satisfaction surveys to the objective

Objectivity (science)

Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are created. It is the idea that scientists, in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world, must aspire to eliminate personal biases, a priori commitments, emotional involvement, etc...

 determinants of quality of life across countries. The index was calculated in 2005 and includes data from 111 countries and territories.

Methodology

The survey uses nine quality of life

Quality of life

The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...

 factors to determine a nation's score. They are listed below including the indicators used to represent these factors:

1. Healthyness: Life expectancy at birth (in years). Source: US Census Bureau
2. Family life: Divorce rate (per 1,000 population), converted into index of 1 (lowest divorce rates) to 5 (highest). Sources: UN; Euromonitor
3. Community life: Variable taking value 1 if country has either high rate of church attendance or trade-union membership; zero otherwise. Source: World Values Survey
4. Material well being: GDP per person, at PPP in $. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
5. Political stability and security: Political stability and security ratings. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
6. Climate and geography: Latitude, to distinguish between warmer and colder climates. Source: CIA World Factbook
7. Job security: Unemployment rate (%.) Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
8. Political freedom: Average of indexes of political and civil liberties. Scale of 1 (completely free) to 7 (unfree). Source: Freedom House
9. Gender equality: Measured using ratio of average male and female earnings. Source: UNDP Human Development Report

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index, 2005

111 countries and territories were included in the 2005 Quality of Life Index.

Rank	Country or territory	Quality of Life Score (out of 10)
1	Republic of Ireland	8.333
2	Switzerland	8.068
3	Norway	8.051
4	Luxembourg	8.015
5	Sweden	7.937
6	Australia	7.925
7	Iceland	7.911
8	Italy	7.810
9	Denmark	7.797
10	Spain	7.727
11	Singapore	7.719
12	Finland	7.618
13	United States	7.615
14	Canada	7.599
15		7.436
16	Netherlands	7.433
17	Japan	7.392
18		7.347
19	Portugal	7.307
20	Austria	7.268
21		7.259
22	Greece	7.163
23	Cyprus	7.097
24	Belgium	7.095
25	Early Modern France	7.084
26	Germany	7.048
27	Slovenia	6.986
28	Malta	6.934
29		6.917
30		6.877
31	Chile	6.789
32	Mexico	6.766
33	Barbados	6.702
34		6.629
35		6.624
36	Malaysia	6.608
37	Hungary	6.534
38	Israel	6.488
39	Brazil	6.470
40	Argentina	6.469
41	Qatar	6.462
42	Thailand	6.436
43		6.417
44	Philippines	6.403
45	Slovakia	6.381
46	Uruguay	6.368
47	Panama	6.361
48	Poland	6.309
49	Independent State of Croatia	6.301
50	Turkey	6.286
51	Trinidad and Tobago	6.278
52	Ecuador	6.272
53	Peru	6.216
54	Colombia	6.176
55	Kuwait	6.171
56	El Salvador	6.164
57	Kingdom of Bulgaria	6.162
58	Kingdom of Romania	6.105
59	Venezuela	6.089
60	People's Republic of China	6.083
61	Vietnam	6.080
62	Bahrain	6.035
63	Lithuania	6.033
64	Jamaica	6.022
65	Morocco	6.018
66	Latvia	6.008
67	Oman	5.916
68	Estonia	5.905
69	United Arab Emirates	5.899
70	Libya	5.849
71	Indonesia	5.814
72		5.767
73	India	5.759
74	Paraguay	5.756
75	Jordan	5.675
76	Nicaragua	5.663
77	Bangladesh	5.646
78	Albania	5.634
79		5.630
80	Egypt	5.605
81	Algeria	5.571
82	Bolivia	5.492
83	Tunisia	5.472
84	Serbia and Montenegro	5.428
85	Armenia	5.422
86	Azerbaijan	5.377
87	Georgia (country)	5.365
88	Iran	5.343
89	Republic of Macedonia	5.337
90	Guatemala	5.321
91	Honduras	5.250
92	South Africa	5.245
93	Pakistan	5.229
94	Bosnia and Herzegovina	5.218
95	Ghana	5.174
96	Kazakhstan	5.082
97	Syria	5.052
98	Ukraine	5.032
99	Moldova	5.009
100	Belarus	4.978
101	Uganda	4.879
102	Turkmenistan	4.870
103	Kyrgyzstan	4.846
104	Botswana	4.810
105	Russia	4.796
106	Uzbekistan	4.767
107	Tajikistan	4.754
108	Nigeria	4.505
109	Tanzania	4.495
110	Haiti	4.090
111	Zimbabwe	3.892

Countries not listed

Many countries/territories, including most of the Least Developed Countries

Least Developed Countries

Least developed country is the name given to a country which, according to the United Nations, exhibits the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development, with the lowest Human Development Index ratings of all countries in the world...

, are omitted from this ranking as there is insufficient data to produce a viable rank. Also not included are the European microstate

Microstate

A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, but usually both. Some examples include Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Nauru, Singapore, and Vatican City....

 countries, which would presumably rank highly if included.

See also

• Happy Planet Index
  Happy Planet Index
  The Happy Planet Index is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in July 2006. The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product and the Human Development Index...
  
  
• Life Quality Index
  Life Quality Index
  The Life Quality Index is a compound social indicator of human welfare that reflects the expected length of life in good health and enhancement of the quality of life through access to income...
  
  
• MANSA
  MANSA
  MANSA is a scale used to assess quality of life. Its name is short for Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life. It was developed by Priebe et al. in 1999. The creators of the scale found the results of the scale to be comparable to the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile.The MANSA consists of...
  
   Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe statistics
  Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe statistics
  1 These countries are currently not participating in the EU's single market , but the EU has common external Customs Union agreements with Turkey , Andorra and San Marino . Monaco participates in the EU customs union through its relationship with France; its ports are administered by the French...
  
  
• Vulnerability index
  Vulnerability index
  A vulnerability index is a composite of indices, also referred to as integrated indices, which are quantitative indicators similar to scales, which, when entered into a formula, deliver a single numerical result which can be used for triage and policy analysis. Through their use, ““diverse issues...
  
  
• South America Life Quality Rankings
• South America Life Quality Rankings - Economy and Finance
• South America Life Quality Rankings - Law and Justice