Better Life Index

The OECD Better Life Index, in May 2011 by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development following a decade of work on this issue, is a first attempt to bring together internationally comparable measures of well-being in line with the recommendations of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress also known as the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission. The recommendations made by this Commission sought to address concerns that standard macroeconomic statistics like GDP failed to give a true account of people’s current and future well-being.

There are 11 areas that comprise the BLI rating factors: Housing, Income, Jobs, Community, Education, Environment, Civic Engagement, Health, Life satisfaction, safety & work-Life Balance

The specific elements within the above areas are: Dwellings without basic facilities, Housing Expenditures, Persons per room, Household net adjusted disposable income, Household net worth, Labor market insecurity, Employment rate, Long-term unemployment rate, Personal earnings, quality of support network, Educational attainment, Student skills, Years in education, Air pollution, Water quality, Stakeholder engagement for developing regulations, Voter turnout, Life expectancy, Self-reported health, Life satisfaction, Feeling safe walking alone at night, Homicide rate, Employees working very long hours & time devoted to leisure and personal care.

The USA still ranks in the top 10 (we are 10^th) on the better life index. At one time I suspect we were at the top or very near the top. We have been slowly slipping, primarily replaced by EU countries. The top 20 can be seen below.

1	Norway
2	Australia
3	Iceland
4	Canada
5	Denmark
6	Switzerland
7	Netherlands
8	Sweden
9	Finland
10	United States
11	Luxembourg
12	New Zealand
13	Belgium
14	United Kingdom
15	Germany
16	Ireland
17	Austria
18	France
19	Spain
20	Slovenia

Another view of the Success of countries is the Quality of Life Index. It is a bit more basic, but still considers many important factors and demonstrates the high ratings of many of the EU countries as can be seen below:

Rank	Country	Quality of Life Index	Purchasing Power Index	Safety Index	Health Care Index	Cost of Living Index	Property Price to Income Ratio	Traffic Commute Time Index	Pollution Index	Climate Index
1	Denmark	198.6	114.4	75.8	79.4	81.4	6.9	28.5	22.1	81.8
2	Switzerland	195.9	129.7	78.5	72.7	121.2	9.6	29.1	22.0	80.1
3	Finland	194.0	112.3	77.2	73.5	72.8	8.0	30.4	11.9	58.6
4	Australia	191.1	122.9	57.2	76.4	72.1	7.6	35.3	24.0	93.8
5	Austria	191.1	96.7	78.6	79.2	71.8	10.1	25.2	22.0	77.7
6	Netherlands	188.9	102.5	71.4	77.8	74.8	7.4	29.9	27.5	87.5
7	Iceland	187.8	91.8	76.7	66.4	101.9	6.6	19.7	15.2	68.8
8	Germany	187.1	116.2	65.5	74.3	67.6	9.0	29.9	28.0	82.5
9	New Zealand	185.6	101.1	60.5	73.6	72.6	8.3	31.2	22.7	95.5
10	Norway	181.9	103.6	64.7	74.1	101.0	8.4	27.1	19.9	71.2
11	Estonia	180.9	76.0	79.2	72.1	51.0	9.3	25.8	18.2	64.3
12	Japan	180.5	103.1	86.3	80.4	83.3	11.3	40.0	37.1	84.8
13	United States	179.2	122.0	52.9	69.4	69.9	3.6	32.9	34.0	77.5
14	Sweden	178.7	111.4	50.7	71.0	71.6	10.3	30.3	18.0	74.9
15	Slovenia	176.0	75.4	77.4	62.8	52.5	10.2	24.8	24.3	78.1
16	Spain	174.2	83.8	67.5	77.8	54.7	9.2	29.4	39.4	94.2
17	United Kingdom	170.8	105.7	57.3	74.7	65.3	9.2	34.6	39.4	87.8
18	Canada	170.3	109.4	60.5	71.0	65.0	7.7	33.8	27.9	52.6
19	Qatar	167.8	138.3	86.7	72.4	59.1	5.7	31.7	66.5	36.0
20	United Arab Emirates	167.8	119.6	83.7	68.0	56.2	4.4	37.5	53.1	45.2