This year the UN ranked the Netherlands as the third best country to live in. The ranking is based on the Human Development Index, which is a comparison measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for the countries worldwide. The number of countries ranked worldwide has increased from 169 in 2010 to 187 this year.

The UN Human Development Report emphasizes the significant improvement of the quality of life taken place in the Netherlands in 2011, as last year it was ranked 7th. The only two countries placed ahead of Holland are Norway and Australia. This year Netherlands appears much higher on the list than its neighbouring countries with Germany ranked 9th and Belgium – 18th.

When it comes to the equality between women and men, the Netherlands scores even higher following only Sweden. Germany and Belgium are on the 7th and 12th positions respectively. The average life expectancy of the Dutch is 80.7 years, which is 5 years longer than it was 30 years ago.

The last on the list is the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Zimbabwe – last year’s worst country to live in – moved up to 173rd place.

Top 10 countries to live in:

1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Netherlands
4. United States
5. New Zealand
6. Canada
7. Ireland
8. Liechtenstein
9. Germany
10. Sweden

UNDP International Human Development Reports