Sweden – the third best country to live in Posted by jennie on Aug 17, 2010 in Culture
Alright, if you would have asked me, I might have given us a gold medal, but according to the US magazine Newsweek’s investigation published today, Sweden is the third best country to live in in the whole wide world. Not bad, right?
Newsweek have evaluated 100 countries based on five categories: health, economic dynamism, education, political environment and quality of life. And because it’s easier to improve quality of life if you’re a tiny and rich country, the list also accounts for income and size with rankings by subcategories. In other words, the title “Best country in the world” has many holders.
But Sweden scores top marks when it comes to our political environment, it is regarded the best in the world:
In a competition for most neutral country Sweden could give Switzerland a run for its money: Swedes haven’t fought a war in nearly two centuries, and even though they joined the EU in 1995, they have not adopted the euro. Transparency International ranks Sweden among the top three least corrupt countries in the world. The cartoonist Lars Vilks–who was attacked for drawing the prophet Muhammad as a dog–embodies Sweden’s commitment to freedom of speech as well as freedom of religion. All religious places of worship in Sweden receive some funding from the government, for example. Perhaps it’s the open environment that inspires about 80 percent of Swedes to vote.
We get our worst score in the education category where we only make it to number 19, beaten by Australia, Netherlands and Estonia amongst other countries with more average years of schooling. An average Swede goes to school for 15.4 years, according to Newsweek. In health, we are rated third and 5th overall in economic dynamism.
I strongly recommend a click here for the an excellent and interactive tool where you can compare all the countries against each other and get some valuable facts and figures.
So, what’s the best country to live in then, all in all? The winner is, not surprisingly, our neighbour Finland, followed by Switzerland.
The 10 best countries to live in – according to Newsweek:
1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxemburg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
“Hurra! Vi är tredje bäst i världen!”
Photo: Marta Debeba/Sweden.se
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Comments:
Christopher:
I’ve been reading this blog for to long and now its my turn to have a chance and experience sweden. I will be leaving August 30th and be there for ten days to do a small temp job. I have 5 days in stockholm and 5 days in Gothenburg. Read my blog about it here http://kinifi.tumblr.com/
Ian:
They obviously didn’t include Weather & Climate in that study. Only one of the top 10 has a truly livable climate.
Torbjörn:
Norway is the most expencive country to live in.
It´s terrible here. Don´t go there. I live there and I will move as soon as possible.
T. from Sweden
Oliver:
I’m half Swedish myself, the country does have many good things but at the same time it has one of the highest rates of asylum seekers in the world! Mälmo 25% Muslim and growing! This needs to stop!
Tuula:
Hej Svensk, you maybe the second basta, but we are the first, tack so mycket.
Shaban Naser:
Hi,
i want to say somthing to oliver and any other who doesn’t know islam, islam it mean peaceful understand the islam before you order to stop, if you know why they asylum from wars they prevent from killing by us military or any other furgner force…please dont respect us as we do understand your religion…
asalamo alikom (peace on you)
Shaban
Tripoli, Libya
Alison:
Is “most neutral country” supposed to be an accolade? Because surely it just means that no issue is ever bad enough that a country would be willing to become involved? Is the fact that both Sweden and Switzerland were neutral during WWII something for these countries to be proud about? I just wonder why it is mentioned in the context of the article above which is about “best countries in the world”.
E:
If someone wants to defend their religion on a primarily english-written website, at least have it be grammatically correct. Either way, I agree with Oliver
E:
*I meant to type English with a capital E
sorry
Soledad:
Dear E
He is not english native speaker and I don’t think you understand Arabic, also I think you understand his words.
And about the “E” you meant, you make mistakes too right?
Anyhow am going to Sweden soon and I really wish to find the people there are friendly and open mind as I heard
Planet Earth