August 18, 2010
Latvia ranks 36th in a list of the world’s 100 “best” countries compiled by Newsweek magazine. The list considers a country’s health, education, economy and politics.
Although scoring in the upper half of the list, Latvia is behind its Baltic neighbors, Estonia (ranking 32nd overall) and Lithuania (34th).
According to an explanation of the list written by Rana Foroohar, a deputy editor for the U.S.-based magazine, “In Newsweek’s first-ever Best Countries special issue, we set out to answer a question that is at once simple and incredibly complex—if you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous, and upwardly mobile life?”
The magazine examined metrics in five categories: education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness and political environment. In each category, a country could receive up to 100 points. While Latvia fares relatively well in education, with a score of 89.56 to rank 25th on that measure alone, its poorest showing s in the area of economic dynamism, with a score of 43.86 to rank 53rd.
Topping the list is Finland, followed by Switzerland and Sweden. Australia ranks fourth overall, Canada is seventh and the United States comes in 11th. Germany is 12th, followed by the United Kingdom at 14th. Russia ranks 51st. At the bottom of the list is Burkina Faso.
The magazine’s report was published Aug. 15 on its website, www.newsweek.com.
