America is NOT the Best Place to live after all.

[LytSlpr]

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Nordic countries take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to a ranking published on Thursday by the publication Reader's Digest.

Finland comes top of the 141-nation list, followed by Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and then Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and Australia.

At the bottom of the list is Ethiopia, preceded by Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Chad.

The United States comes in 23rd, China 84th and India 104th.

The ranking combines environmental factors, such as air and water quality, respect for biodiversity and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as social factors, such as gross domestic product, access to education, unemployment rate and life expectancy.

The statistical basis is the UN's Human Development Index and the Environmental Sustainability Index drawn up by Yale and Columbia universities and the World Economic Forum.

European countries -- again, led by Scandinavia -- also top the Reader's Digest assessment of 72 cities for their quality of life. The criteria for this include public transport, parks, air quality, rubbish recycling and the price of electricity.

The winner is Stockholm, followed by Oslo, Munich and Paris.

Asia's mega-cities fare the worst. At the bottom is Beijing, preceded by Shanghai, Mumbai, Guangzhou and Bangkok.

[Psychepi]

yes, read that in yahoo. =)

[edgeknife]

by the way, ika-pila ang phils?

i believe it's true that US is not the best place. we know why finland was on top? it's because finland's gotta be the least corrupt country...

[pam]

that's true

[sassy_jihye]

nice jud ang european cities but i doubt if i could live there coz not all europeans speak english(except maybe a few countries like UK) so that would be hard.... personally, i prefer america jd ghapon, aside from being the major economic and entertainment center of the world, i consider it my second home already... nindot lang suroyan ang europe ..

asian cities fare the worst maybe because of corruption and economic problems...

[macro_shot]

At the end of the day, Filipinos still consider the US as the best place to live and incur greener pasture.

[evetyrone]

i agree about US not being the best place to be ... NZ is definitely better than US .. besides , Im getting more than a lot of complaints from my customer that they are very unhappy living in US , I'd still wanna go there if given the chance though

[macro_shot]

^^ NZ is a nice country. You can't see any street beggars around.

[abuot]

another personal reason why European countries are nice to live in is because of its very rich and fascinating culture..the historical sites, traditions, etc..

[evetyrone]

US is good but we need CASH , hehe