(For this analysis, we used data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of mostly highly developed, democratic countries. Read on for the top 20 happiest countries in the world, as well as the 10 unhappiest places, the 10 happiest cities and the 10 unhappiest cities. Central African countries dominate this list. Valencia, Spain Alicante, Spain Lisbon, Portugal Panama City, Panama Singapore Mlaga, Spain Buenos Aires, Argentina Kuala Lumpur Madrid, Spain Abu Dhabi Salmiya, Kuwaitthe worst place in the. Quality of math and science education: 2.90, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 22, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 14, Percent of individuals using internet: 6.2. In a group of 2,000 Tom Thumbs and 2,000 Shaquille O'Neals, the mean or average height for the entire group would still be 5 feet 2 inches and would still reveal nothing about any of the four thousand subjects. Well, that's all that may be necessary for the country of sample 2 to be the leader in technology, innovation, and more. Merkel is the most trusted world leader asked about in the survey and has held that spot since 2017, when Trump succeeded Obama as U.S. president. The OECD collects awide range of dataabout its members, facilitating cross-national comparisons. A Spanish expat complains that it is not easy to make friends among the local residentsthey also have an aggressive attitude on the streets. A Venezuelan expat dislikes the mistreatment of women, the poor working conditions and the general lack of common courtesy., 7. READ MORE: 17 Things You Should Never Do In Europe, Topping the list of the most dangerous placesto live is Brazil, withSouth Africa coming in as the second-worst place, followed by Nigeria. Sixty eight percent of all scores of a sample fall between one standard deviation below and one standard deviation above the mean. Read on forthe list of the10 best and the 10 worst places to live. Don't skip those six-month visits, experts say. This includes only 18% of Americans, by far the lowest share in any surveyed country. Among the countries studied, Turkey had by far the highest inflation rate in the first quarter of 2022: an eye-opening 54.8%. Entertainment This Is the Dumbest State in the U.S. You may opt-out by. levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption, The United States raised one point in the 2020. 2020 is the sixth year in a row that Venezuela has received this dubious designationand given the country's 3,713% inflation and 50.3% unemployment rate, which easily overshadow a 30.9% rise in real GDP per capita for an ultimate misery index score of 3827.6, Venezuela seems well on its way to holding onto its best-of-the-worst spot for the foreseeable future. Coinciding with major conflicts with neighboring Russia's over Crimea and other territories, Ukraine's GDP fell by 6.8% in 2014 while both inflation and unemployment were in the double digits. The US also ranked poorly in happiness: The journalists point out that one in five Americans suffer from mental health issues each year and the suicide rate has increased by 33% between 1999 to 2017. Getting a basic Internet connection in Haiti is a tough task as only 10.6% of the people have access to Internet there. Author: Luca Ventura. A 13-country median of just 15% say the U.S. has done a good job of dealing with the outbreak. World Happiness Report. } And others might scratch their heads wondering why that population with such a low average height had the greatest basketball teams in the world. A measure known as the standard deviation tells more about the distribution of scores. A Canadian expat complains about the politics and insecurity of the future regarding the possibility of political change. In the Safety & Security subcategory, respondents rated three factorsincluding peacefulness, personal safety and political stability. Others, such as the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI), compile a wide range of metrics across a half-dozen or more categories for a more overarching, whole-life approach. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of people facing hunger jumped by 20%. The skyline of Nairobi, one of the most dangerous, A view of the old city of Cairo in Egypt, a, A memorial for shooting victims near the Welcome, A scenic view of Kuwait City, on the list of, Gun violence regularly tops the news in the United States, and the impactis far-reaching. Finally we used percent of individuals using internet to rank countries based on access to internet. Quality of math and science education: 3.84, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 59, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 12, Percent of individuals using internet: 4.4. This troubled land would be an undeveloped country, possibly even one of the [least developed countries]((/country-rankings/least-developed-countries), and a much worse place to live. Bernard Starr, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the City University of N.Y., Brooklyn College, where he taught educational and developmental psychology in the School of Education. Angola really struggles in the field of quality and math education. The quality of math and science education hurts the nation too. Regardless of the absolute level of inflation in each country, most show variations on the same basic pattern: relatively low levels before theCOVID-19 pandemicstruck in the first quarter of 2020; flat or falling rates for the rest of that year and into 2021, as many governments sharply curtailed most economic activity; and rising rates starting in mid- to late 2021, as the world struggled to get back to something approaching normal. The World Happiness Report is an annual survey by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. The US also scored poorly in the human rights category, coming in at fourth worst. Rank based on quality of math and science education: 25, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 51, Percent of individuals using internet: 3.8. According to Zeeck, the political situation in the U.K. has had an impact: Just a third of respondents (33%) rate the political situation in the U.K. positively, a steep drop from the somewhat below-average result in 2018.. To put that in perspective, top-ranked Norway (HDI .957) has a GNI of $66,494 and its citizens attend 12.9 years of school on average. A Danish expat complains that that I cant walk on the street because its not safe: I have to drive or be driven everywhere. A Croatian expat dislikes how foreigners are often taken advantage of through stealing, scamming, and police stopping you just to take money from you. All Rights Reserved. Between the start of 1991 and the end of 2019, year-over-year inflation averaged about 2.3% a month, and exceeded 5.0% only four times. The US has 6.12 reported homicides per 100,000 (bested only by Mexico), whereas most countries on our list are around one or less, says Fergusson. The misery index was originally introduced by the late Arthur Okun, a Yale University economist, as a way to track the U.S. economy. Quality of math and science education: 3.62, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 53, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 15, Percent of individuals using internet: 1.9. A British expat feels that personal security is a big issue, specifically for business leaders. A Canadian expat worries about the increasing criminality of the cartels as well as the corruption which steals money from the people., 12. Quality of math and science education: 2.27, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 5, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 29, Percent of individuals using internet: 20. This is because the country performs poorly in the field of latest tech development and internet access. One notable newcomer tothis yearslist of most dangerous places to live is the United Kingdom, which ranked number 12. At least half in every country surveyed have confidence in the German leader when it comes to her handling of international affairs. Further exposing the flaw in the reports of mean scores of students internationally is that Israel, a world leader in science and technology, shows mean scores on reading, math, and science even lower than the U.S. Like the U.S., though, Israel has a highly diverse population, including a constant inflow of immigrants with language, adjustment, and economic issues, which nationally generates extreme high scores and extreme low scores. And while it seems like a strange time to be evaluating happiness, the editors of the report point out that challenging times can actually increase happiness. This year, Afghanistan was named the unhappiest place in the world, followed by South Sudan and Zimbabwe. Transformative Travel: I look at how travel can change lives. Alarge number of respondents also point at safety factors and current affairs when describing what they do not like about life in the U.S., That said, the timing of promoting InterNationss questionnaires might have impacted the slightly different results, according to Zeeck. Also sobering: America ranked worst for time. On a new Expat City Ranking of the best and worst cities to live, New York City fared better than on [+] last year's ranking survey. The worst forms of child labour. To get a sense of longer-term inflation trends in the U.S., we analyzed two measures besides the commonly cited consumer price index: TheConsumer Price Index Retroactive Series(R-CPI-U-RS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and thePersonal Consumption Expenditures Price Indexfrom the Bureau of Economic Analysis. For each country, we calculated year-over-year inflation rates going back to the first quarter of 2010 and ending in the first quarter of this year. This expansion not only separates families, it also discriminates against countries facing some of the worst crises of our time. A British expat has complaints about the government, poor infrastructure, horrendous traffic, poor condition of roads, poor condition of buildings, and overcrowding.A Ugandan expat dislikes how many of the Egyptian people discriminate and are not friendly. The country is just below average in the quality of math and science department but struggles in every other. According to a new study from the travel website Asher & Lyric, the United States is the second worst place in the world to raise a family. These different approaches can result in very different lists of the worst countries in the world in which to live. ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb. Moreover, the data was collected in March 2020, just before Covid-19 turned into a global pandemic. The mean is a commonly used measure for comparisons, but it can be misleading. The World Happiness Report 2022 ranks the happiest and unhappiest countries in the world, according to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Gallup. (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main It scores close to the OECD average in science and reading and ranks 21st in science and 17th in reading. In Russia, for instance, inflation rates rose steadily throughout the pandemic period before surging in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. The tertiary education enrollment percentage was obtained by WEF from UNESCO Institute for Statistics. They may even have ample nature spaces, such as national parks, and strong support for the arts and culture. Please read and share our articles. Japan has continued its years-long struggle with inflation rates that are toolow. But the United States didnt fare much better, coming in at the bottom of the list at number 34, barely above Mexico. India was found to be the worst country for plastic waste in the oceans in 2020, with some . The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compiles the Human Development Index (HDI) of 191 nations in the annual Human Development Report.The index considers the health, education, income and living in a given country to provide a measure of human development which is comparable between countries and over time.. The U.S. may have a lower mean score than other countries on various education measures, but it does not have a problem at the top or even in the middle, as just illustrated. Fergusson says that the study led her to the conclusion that America is a deeply challenged and troubled countrybut she has hope. 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The country where inflation has grown fastest over the past two years is Israel. Guinea is number 1 when it comes to least patent applications/million. These gains are sometimes great enough to compensate for the material losses.. For other likely contenders for the . "Brazil, South Africa and Nigeriathe bottom three countries in the Safety & Security subcategoryare also the three worst-rated destinations for personal safety in particular," says Malte. (Sweden was the best priced country to raise a family.) Universities? Zeeck points out that the USAs ranking has improved, but it has only moved up threespots for personal safety (from 54th in 2018 to 51st in 2019). ", "First, there are kids who simply want the best education possible. The editors of the report say their ranking is different from other city lists in that their report doesnt just rely on factors that researchers consider relevant. Compare that to Scandinavian countries, where households only have to spend 4% to 10% of household income to raise a well-rounded child.. For the third year in a row, Finland has placed at the top of the . A Pakistani expat is concerned about unfavorable government policies towards foreigners, difficulty and a lack of government support when doing business, corruption and a large language barrier.A Russian expat dislikes the undeveloped infrastructure, dirt, garbage, noise, messy streets, chaostheres almost no peace at all., Ranked: The 20 Most Dangerous Places to Live, Bucket List Travel: The Top 50 Places In The World, Why You Should Skip Iceland And Go To These 9 Under-the-Radar Places, 23 Surprising Things That Will Get You In Trouble In Italy. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. One major element among these is how well the country is performing in the field of technology and research. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. A Pew Research Center analysis of data from 44 advanced economies finds that, in nearly all of them, consumer prices have risen substantially since pre-pandemic times. Quality of math and science education: 4.13, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 78, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 18, Percent of individuals using internet: 8.7. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report's annual Best Countries rankings after a one-year hiatus, while the United States and Sweden moved into the top 5 in the . From violent crime to the impact of COVID, this is the most perilous place in the country. WEF obtained patent application data from OECD and population data from IMF. Turkey (56th overall). Is the key to the discrepancy number three of the three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics? The United Kingdom was at number 13 (up two spots from 2019), Germany was again at 17, Japan was at 62 (down four spots from 2019), Russia was at 73 (down five spots) and China was at 94 (down one spot). The Great African War saw 6 million lives lost in fighting, disease, and malnutrition, followed by persistent Ebola outbreaks, and a recent resurgence of violence. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. A recent report by packaging company RAJA reveals the top culprits worldwide producing the most plastic. Quality of math and science education: 2.40, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 8, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 8. Uganda is number 24 on our list chiefly due to its well below average ranking in higher education enrollment rate. Denmark was hailed as the best country to start a family, while Sweden and Norway placed second and third, respectively. Americans work very long hours per year with zero government-mandated paid maternity, paternity, sick leave or vacation time, says Fergusson. PISA Scores Coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development( OECD), The headlines proclaim frightening news about American education. Our systemic racism is just one example, which has been recently exposed during the Black Lives Matter protests, says Fergusson. Quality of math and science education: 3.40, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 43, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 27, Percent of individuals using internet: 10.9. One shocking fact that the journalists uncovered: American mothers are twice as likely to die in childbirth here as in Canadaeven though it will cost us three times as much for a standard hospital birth, says Fergusson. Headlines that affirm American educational leadership tell a strikingly different story. The worst forms of child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities - often at a very early age. All Women Experience Menopause, But Only A Fraction Are Diagnosed. "Finance. which is the most dumb country in the world, How to Best Use Insider Monkey to Increase Your Returns, 6 Things You Didn't Know About Hedge Funds. This tremendous stock of highly educated human capital enabled the U.S. to become the dominant economy in the world. Best Countries is a rankings, news and analysis project created to capture how countries are perceived on a global scale. "Yet despite the economic crisis facing the country, the U.S. educational system remains frozen in place, unable to adapt to contemporary global realities.". Otherinflation metricsalso have shown significant increases over the past year or so, though not quite to the same extent as the CPI. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. If you are conscious of your countrys reputation in the world, we bring you the list of the 25 dumbest countries in the world to help you find out where your country stands. 6. 10. While the U.K. does not perform well for any of these, it is especially the latterthat heavily impacts its results in 2019, causing it to drop from a 49th place out of 68 destinations in 2018 to rank 53rd out of 64 in 2019, says Zeeck. Average IQ: 98.4 It overall ranks the 2nd worst nation in math and science field. Granted, comparing the lists from year to year isnt exactly comparing apples to apples. According to the data, it was the second-worst after Mexico. Beyond The Mythos Of The 4%: Three Alternative Sources Of Funding For Companies Looking For Capital. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. ForbesWomen Weekly: A 94-Year-Old Grandmother Takes On The Supreme Court. This year, New York City escaped the bottom of the list. Foreigners now have more difficulty registering, accessing healthcare and purchasing property., 16. Quality of math and science education: 3.14, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 32, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 20, Percent of individuals using internet: 23. Which country is the dumbest in the world? The only list of its kind scores countries on a scale of zero to 100 based on survey scores from experts and businesspeople and their confidence in the public sector for investment. There were 151 countries included in WEFs database, so it is very likely that some of the countries that arent in this database would rank very high. Political chaos has caused lots of confusion and discomfort in my workplace., 2. A Sri Lankan expat complains how being a person of color is challenging. We chose to use quarterly inflation measures, both because theyre less volatile than monthly figures and because they were available for all but one OECD country (Costa Rica, which joined the OECD in May 2021). PU Pulse on Instagram: " . In the overall cost index, the US placed last, performing twice as poorly as New Zealand, which finished just ahead of the US. The World Happiness Report was originally launched in 2012. We used survey results done by WEF to rank countries by the quality of math and science education. The country is not there amongst the top 10 in any of the categories mentioned below but its presence in each one of them makes the country stand at number 25 in our list. United Kingdom (53rd overall). As revealed by earlier studies of earthquakes, floods, storms, tsunamis and even economic crises, a high trust society quite naturally looks for and finds co-operative ways to work together to repair the damage and rebuild better lives. Tanzania is a country known for its wildlife and beautiful landscapes but when it comes to quality of math and science education and higher education enrollment the country really struggles. For example, the average person in Niger attends only 2.1 years of school, and the country's Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is $1201 PPP. South Africa (63rd overall). 7 Countries Inviting Americans To Move Abroad, This is a BETA experience. xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain;charset=UTF-8'); These are general traits of high-income and developed countries, which is usually a nice place to call home. These include Valencia (in the #1 spot), Alicante (2nd), Mlaga (6th) and Madrid (9th). The average score of an IQ test is 100, and many psychologists use that value as a baseline to compare places and people. Only 1.1% of people in Timor-Leste have access to Internet, which makes the country take our 20th spot. Since then, however, prices have rocketed upward: The annual inflation rate in Greece reached 7.44% in this years first quarter nearly 21 times what it was two years earlier (0.36%). People stare at me, take my photo, talk to me horribly, try to cheat me, etc. But after a relatively mild recession, Israels consumer price index began rising quickly: It averaged 3.36% in the first quarter of this year, more than 25 times the inflation rate in the same period in 2020. A Hungarian expat states: We are not really free, cannot walk on the streets, cannot mingle with the Nigerians. Perhaps politicians in the U.S. who oppose increased funding for education--even lowering support and decimating education with proposals like eliminating the Department of Education-- have figured out that all America needs to be the innovation leader of the world is its upper ten percent of the population, and, therefore, to hell with the rest of its citizens. For thethe safest countries to live,you can view the completeSafety & Security list here. } else { So what could possibly be wrong or deceptive about the mean? Today, Americans rate inflation as thenations top problem, and President Joe Biden has said addressing the problem is his top domestic priority. Chinese Students Coming to U.S. Middle Schools? Compare the upper ten percent of American students with the upper ten percent of all the countries that reportedly are beating us and the rankings and conversation will take a dramatic turn. Trouble Sleeping? In addition, 57% of respondents now say that they find it easy to make friends in New York, which is 13 percentage points higher than last year. Mexico (54th overall). Switzerland has reclaimed its No. Positioned as Technology Export Leader for Next 20 Years, "Technology-intensive goods are expected to account for 17% of the total growth in U.S. export goods for the rest of this decade, HSBC stated.". This analysis is supported by the finding that on the OECD measures: "Average scores from Massachusetts were above the international average in all three subject areas" and "Florida students on average scored below the international average in math and science and around the international average in reading." But there are exceptions to that general dip-and-surge pattern. Even for those countries that are not plagued with strife, most people attend school for only a few years, and good jobs are rare, which leaves millions of people living below the poverty line. By the way, we already published an article about the list of smartest countries in the world. The country came in at a shockingly low 34th place out of 35 countries, only beating out crime-ridden Mexico. In 37 of these 44 nations, the average annual inflation rate in the first quarter of this year was at least twice what it was in the first quarter of 2020, as COVID-19 was beginning its deadly spread. Egypt is the most populated country in North Africa and one of the most politically fraught . A British expat states: My life is easier here, but I feel as if I am living in a bubble: I miss the freedom to walk or ride anywhere at any time, and I hate having to worry about my security. A Belgian expat complains about the uncertain political situation, racism, corruption and high crime rate, as well as the weakness of the rand., 3. Here are the Best Countries to Travel Alone in 2022 Spain Italy Greece New Zealand Australia Portugal 1 / 9 Credit The Top 5 Countries for Traveling Alone As the world accustoms itself to a. ", American Schools vs. the World: Expensive, Unequal, Bad at Math, "the U.S. scores below average in math and ranks 17th among the 34 OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries. The U.S. ranked number 18a slight uptick from last year when it ranked 19, although its still far below its 11th place ranking in the first World Happiness Report. Quality of math and science education: 2.70, Rank based on quality of math and science education: 16, Rank based on tertiary education enrollment: 41, Percent of individuals using internet: 1.2. It has been failing for decades and is getting worse; American students are among the dumbest in the world, ranking below most industrialized nations, including Estonia and Slovenia: HEADLINES How America Is Falling Behind "In the second half of the twentieth century. For most developed countries, the misery index hovers between a very good 0.00 and a passable 20.00. Gun violence regularly tops the news in the United States, and the impactis far-reaching , according to a new survey from InterNations,a global community and information site for people who live and work abroad. Cambodia is an Asian country and number 17th on our list. This land locked central Asian country is the 42nd most populous country in the world. More recently, John Hopkins economist Steve Hanke expanded the concept to include 156 countries and established an annual ranking of the world's best and worst countries to live in from an economic perspective. August 05, 2022. When it comes to the United States as a whole, the country performed better on this years list, too. That sample would produce a higher mean than a diverse multicultural population like in the US with a wide range of scores including extreme lows and extreme highs with more extreme lows than extreme highs--a pattern that would produce a lower average score than the homogeneous population. The annual inflation rate in Israel had been below 2.0% (and not infrequently negative) every quarter from the start of 2012 through mid-2021; in the first quarter of 2020, the rate was 0.13%. An Australian expat dislikes how the assumptions about foreign women being easy make it unsafe to do so many things alone as well as the hardline politicsthe social tensions and the very bad pollution.A Canadian expat reports how she constantly feels like an outsider. Internet access and latest tech development can hardly be seen in Yemen. American Leadership in Science, Measured in Nobel Prizes, "The United States has won more Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics since World War II than any other country, by a wide margin.". To rank the most and least family-friendly countries, the journalists looked at 30 critical statistics from trusted international sources broken down into six categories that identify favorable conditions for raising a family, including safety, happiness, cost, health, education and time. 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