Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press, May 28, 2013
Canada is among the best places in the world to live, according to a new quality of life measure from a leading international organization that compared rich industrialized nations.
The Better Life Index from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development launched Tuesday finds Canada among the leaders in most of the 24 indicators measured, everything from hard data dealing with jobs and income, to perceptions of something the OECD calls “life satisfaction.”
The Paris-based organization does not give an overall ranking, but if all the indicators are added up and given equal weighting, Canada would come in third behind Australia and Sweden.
Ironically, Australians don’t see themselves so blessed. On the life satisfaction measure, Australians gave themselves a 7.2 out of 10, while Canadians were at 7.4. Residents of Switzerland topped the indicator with a 7.8.
Canada’s high ranking comes about because it scores inside the Top 10 in most of the major ones and above average overall among the 36 advanced countries studied.
Overall, the OECD comparison is more flattering to Canadians than the recent Human Development Index from the United Nations, which had Canada slipping to number 11 in 2012.
The OECD measure appears more broad-based, with 11 major categories of well-being measured, as opposed the UN’s three—health, education and living standard.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment