Newsweek: The Best Country in the World is....

A couple weeks ago Newsweek's cover story was an examination into which country in the world was best in various categories. Naturally, once I found the article I immediately started to skim through it looking for the United States. Now let me first say that I have been conditioned by society and its so-called rankings of different things over the years. So I did not by any means expect to see the U.S. in first place. But I surely did not expect to see America be ranked way down at number 11.

I bet your wondering as I was, how did they come to this realization? And if we are number 11, then who the hell made number 1? And actually, who are the other 9 countries that were ranked before us!?!? I mean surely if you had to rank our country on things like Congress doing what the people actually want, our President following through on campaign promises, law enforcement, etc.. I don't think many Americans would be ranking us too highly either. Especially with the current recession and jobless rate.

Newsweek's goal in this article was to rank the countries based on this central ideal: "if you were born today, which country would give you the best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous, and upwardly mobile life?" Somehow they used their own special weighted formula, took various previous survey information in five categories (education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness, and political environment) and put them all together. And of course, being Newsweek, they have enlisted the aid of various experts, professionals and professors. So just like anything else it seems, whenever people of that stature are involved we tend to believe the results given us by these "experts".

So with all that said, how do you feel about their rankings? I will list the top 10 in each category given by the magazine. If you would like to see the full list as well as more detailed information on the formula used and other factors involved in their decision, just go to www.newsweek.com.

Overall Ranking

1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
11. United States

Quality of Life

1. Germany
2. United States
3. France
4. Japan
5. United Kingdom
6. Italy
7. Russia
8. Mexico
9. Thailand
10. Turkey

Economic Dynamism

1. Singapore
2. United States
3. South Korea
4. United Kingdom
5. Sweden
6. Australia
7. Switzerland
8. Luxembourg
9. Japan

Education

1. Finland
2. South Korea
3. Canada
4. Singapore
5. Japan
6. Switzerland
7. Estonia
8. United Kingdom
9. Ireland
10. Netherlands

Health

1. Japan
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Australia
7. Singapore
8. Norway
9. New Zealand
10. Netherlands

Weather you agree with their rankings or not, I must admit the article is very well thought out, well written and seems to be the result of Newsweek (and its experts) doing their homework. It is a very interesting read and going to their website does provide some extra background on how they got their results. If you have the opportunity grab the issue (August 23 & 30th, 2010) or check out the information the have on their website (www.newsweek.com). You will not be disappointed, except by maybe where our country falls on the list in most categories.