Can the Best Country be Objectively Chosen?
Can one objectively say one country is better than another? That is debatable plus everyone has different and subjective criteria. Here are some objective statistics for comparing some of the most developed countries of the world. Use these criteria when comparing health or economic well-being of people in different countries.
| UNDP | Health | Health | Health | Wealth | Wealth | ||
| # | Country | Human Devel | Life Span | < 5 yrs Child Mortality | Cost per Capita | Median Income | per Adult |
| 1 | Canada | 0.936 | 82.6 | 5.0 | 5,828 | 38,487 | 151.2K |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 0.929 | 80.7 | 4.2 | 5,019 | 25,407 | 141.6K |
| 3 | Japan | 0.925 | 84.5 | 2.5 | 4,666 | 21,697 | 119.9K |
| 4 | South Korea | 0.925 | 83.5 | 3.0 | 3,582 | 30,971 | 93.1K |
| 5 | USA | 0.921 | 76.3 | 6.3 | 11,859 | 46,625 | 93.3K |
| 6 | France | 0.903 | 82.3 | 4.4 | 5,468 | 29,872 | 139.1K |
| 7 | Italy | 0.895 | 82.8 | 2.6 | 3,747 | 25,265 | 112.1K |
Wealth Index Surprises
There were a few surprises. I was surprised at how highly the United Kingdom ranked on the HDI Index. You might be surprised by the Credit Suisse Wealth per Adult metric. Arguably, the USA is the wealthiest country. But what this metric shows is the wealth of the median citizen. In other words, most of the wealth of the USA is held by “the two percent”. All amounts are in USD.
Health Index Surprises
If you sort the countries by health metrics, the USA falls to the last in both Life Expectancy and < 5-Year-Old Child Mortality. Yet the USA spends the most per capita on health care that any other advanced economy that has universal health care.
Economic Terms
For those of you who want to understand the statistics, please read the following:
Median
Median is the midpoint at which half of the people are below that amount and half are above that amount. It is much more accurate for economic and income amounts as the average would be skewed much higher when wealth is owned by “the two percent” of the population.
Gross Domestic Product
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a metric economists use to analyze the objective wealth of a country. It looks at all the goods and services exchanged within a country’s borders in a given year. GDP Is Not a measure of human well-being. It is a measure of the wealth of a country. For instance, India is a very wealthy country, but the people are not that well off.
Human Development Index
Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators. It is used by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to compare countries around the world.
Life Expectancy
Life Expectancy is a statistical measure of the estimated life span from birth, according to the World Bank 2021.
Under-Five Mortality Rate
The under-five mortality rate is the number of deaths of infants and children under five years old per 1000 live births. This metric is from the World Bank 2020.
Health Cost per Capita
Health Cost per Capita includes both public and private expenditure per person as determined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Wealth per Adult
This metric displays the median Wealth (including all investments) per Adult as determined by the Credit Suisse investment bank.
Data Sources
Most of the statistics can be found on Wikipedia, but were generated by other organizations.
List of countries by total health expenditure per capita, OECD 2020
List of countries by infant and under-five mortality rates, World Bank 2020
List of countries by life expectancy, World Bank 2021
List of countries by wealth per adult, Credit Suisse Bank 2022
Author & Photographer: George Mitchell
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