Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands ranked as the best countries in which to live, in the 2003 UN Human Development report

Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands ranked as the best countries in which to live, in the 2003 UN Human Development report, but people in once top-ranked Canada were miffed. The United States ranked seventh and Canada was eighth in the report that seeks to go beyond per capita income and include such factors as educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being. Singapore came in 28th in the index. The report also gives a separate index for women's participation in political and economic fields, with surprising results. It says women fare better in Botswana, Costa Rica and Namibia than in Greece, Italy and Japan. Canada, which had been in first place in the overall index of 175 countries for seven years until 2001, conducted its own poll, apparently timed to the UN report. Last year, Canada slipped to third place. Canadian media reported that 89 per cent of the country had an 'absolute conviction that we have a better quality of life than the United States'. Mr Mark Malloch Brown, head of the UN Development Programme that produces the index, said there was little difference among the 10 top-rated nations. The change in Canada's status was due to new methods of calculating educational standards.