IRELAND HAS been ranked second in the world for quality of life, according to a new study from the United Nations.
The new Human Development Index from the UN places Ireland second-highest in the world for quality of life, which is based on health, education and income in each country.
Ireland has moved up one place from the 2019 Index, going from third place to second, overtaking Switzerland.
The Republic is now second only to Norway, which has been deemed the best country in the world for quality of life.
Ireland's placement is a result of it doing well in a number of other categories, coming eight in education, with 18.7 years of average years of schooling, fifth in terms of wealth with a gross national income per capita of €55,774, and joint-15th in life expectancy, with life expectancy at birth of 82.3 years.
The UN Human Index report measures a total of 189 countries across the globe, and found Ireland to be in the top tier of human development, ranked 'Very high'.
The top 10 countries in terms of quality of life can be seen below, and you can read the report in full here.
Planetary pressured-adjusted United Nations Human Development Index (2020)
Thread_water on December 18th, 2020 at 14:20 UTC »
The Netherlands felt like a country that was planned from the ground up. Cycle paths everywhere, clean, buildings fit in and look nice, nice amount of green areas, rent was cheap.
In Dublin we just have jobs, two fucking tram lines, and a genuinely decent chance of dying if you try cycle to work. They drew cycle paths onto the roads, even when there isn't enough room for both a car and a bike. And that's when your lucky, often you just have to cycle on the side of the road and hope some idiot isn't checking his phone.
Anyways, my point being, I think with more factors Ireland would drop on this list.
Probably still in top 10, but surely behind Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany.
OptimoussePrime on December 18th, 2020 at 10:08 UTC »
As an Irish person who is very familiar with Switzerland, this seems entirely wrong to me.
skeebidybop on December 18th, 2020 at 09:35 UTC »
So this article is based on the new HDI formula, and here is the list:
Planetary pressured-adjusted United Nations Human Development Index (2020)
Norway
Ireland
Switzerland
Hong Kong
Iceland
Germany
Sweden
Australia
Netherlands
Denmark
Here's the source UN report for anyone curious, which is fascinating and covers a huge amount of material and topics:
Human Development and the Anthropocene (PDF)
Edit - full list of HDI (2020) for all countries can be found on this wiki page
Edit 2 - here's the inequality-adjusted HDI (which I prefer)
Edit 3 - I agree, I am also incredulous about Hong Kong being #4 in 2020
Edit 4 - sorry I wish I realised this sooner, but the article is using the normal HDI, not the new planetary-pressured HDI (which it incorrectly states it’s using). The PHDI rankings are dramatically different from the HDI