Spain still a good place to live according to HDI rankings

SPAIN, which increased its Human Development Index score by a couple of decimal places, remains a good place to live.

But the slight increase – from 0.876 to 0.878 – did not improve Spain’s position in the UN rankings which are calculated on life expectancy, wealth and education levels in 187 countries.

Now ranked 23rd, Spain came three places lower than in 2010, a fall due to Slovenia, Austria and Hong Kong displacing Spain. 

Although Spain’s year-on-year increase was maintained, progress had slowed in all the areas examined for the Index.

Life expectancy increased to 81.4 years but Spain is now ranked ninth, having ceded its previous position at eighth to Israel. 

With pupils remaining an average of 10.4 years at school, Spain has now been overtaken by countries like Bulgaria and dropped to 29th place compared to 26th in 2010.

As in 2010, the HDI rankings were once again headed by Norway, which scored 0.943.  This was the ninth time in 11 listings that the oil-rich Scandinavian country came first, with an 80.4-year life expectancy, average 12 years of schooling and high national.

Australia was in second place, as it was in 2010, followed by the Netherlands and the United States. 

Spain nevertheless was better placed Italy (0.874), the UK (0.861) and Portugal (0.809).

When levels of equality in health systems and income were taken into account, Spain was ranked 17th ahead of United States which dropped to 23 place.  It did less well regarding gender inequality, ranked 13th with a score of 0.117 compared to Sweden in first place with 0.049, Holland (0.052) and Denmark (0.060).