Standards of living & Quality of life

Standards of living & Quality of life

The latest surveys show that the US has the 10th highest standard of living among all of the world’s countries. All the countries that rank higher on the list are European with the single exception of New Zealand. The standard of living is primarily a financial measurement showing the buying power of the average citizen.

A better measurement, in my view, is quality of life which takes into account standards of living factors and several others that determine life’s quality.

I apologize for the format as I could not get an effective copy & paste on this chart, but you get the idea:

RankCountryQuality of Life IndexPurchasing Power IndexSafety IndexHealth Care IndexCost of Living IndexProperty Price to Income RatioTraffic Commute Time IndexPollution IndexClimate Index
1Denmark196.47110.6975.2879.2283.887.5229.6020.7982.29
2Switzerland196.08127.7678.8273.23122.679.1129.1221.3179.24
3Finland195.06108.7877.2575.2772.187.8830.6211.5762.79
4Australia189.73118.0957.3076.8273.397.6835.6623.1594.20
5Iceland188.1292.0376.8565.6697.226.4119.4915.6568.81
6Austria187.8289.8876.7779.4672.1510.6425.4121.7880.36
7Netherlands186.4198.0471.4675.6375.227.5229.4227.3487.56
8Germany184.30111.9965.4073.5866.579.4230.3928.4282.80
9New Zealand183.0797.5959.1173.7173.018.5130.7223.4995.46
10Sweden180.52112.7552.7969.4170.119.6130.0417.4573.58
11Norway179.7898.0066.4974.36104.498.6127.2420.2971.37
12Estonia178.2776.7577.8368.4950.999.0725.4919.8864.28
13United States176.77119.1053.2769.2370.953.5432.6635.7476.75
14Japan176.4697.5784.0980.4885.5212.8338.6436.7885.26
15Spain173.5679.8168.9378.4254.749.4829.3039.1694.55
16Slovenia172.3268.2477.9963.7554.1710.6026.7023.2176.11
17Canada169.42105.0160.5271.2768.167.8833.6327.6655.79
18United Kingdom166.73100.4656.3674.8865.339.8234.7540.6387.71
19Croatia164.6957.2375.7765.6050.0512.6929.8829.0689.05

Our country ranks a bit lower on this scale at #13. What is perplexing to me is why we are not #1 when it comes to both measurements? Only two of the countries that rank ahead of the US have a per capita GDP that is higher. Norway at $71,590 and Switzerland at $61,360. The US stands at $59,495. The difference is simply on how income and wealth are redistributed. a