According to Newsweek's "World's best countries" (Naive title, I know), Switzerland scores second place (It's also the best place to be a rapper! ):

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010...countries.html


Wearing your objectiveness goggles, would you see CH as one of the best?

The quality of life is amazing, but it is quite difficult to socialize, at least in Zurich. However it is not that easy to find the quality you have here in terms of services and timing for them to be provided.

How can Finland be number one? There is barely daylight during winter

The women look better!

and Israel is in the top 30?
Can't really believe that

Right now, in 2010, yes. Within Europe - almost certainly. Longer term, globally, I feel not - I think like other Western countries Switzerland has had its day and will ultimately decline as e.g. any banking edge it had is whittled away by increased scrutiny, and costs will become increasingly uncompetitive. Right now some imaginative approaches to corporate taxation are attracting an excellent diversity of companies to the country, how long this tax advantage can withstand pressure from other nations remains unclear.

I also fear that one day Switzerland will be sucked into the EU and that it is already starting to suffer from an open doors immigration policy (essentially forced on CH by the EU in return for reduced trade barriers) towards EU nationals whereas before Switzerland could be more selective on who it let in.

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Have you been?

yes i was going to say, its odd that SGP is so low down also.

Don't believe any statistics you haven't forged yourself.

It all depends on what is measured and how ... and what is weighted and how.

I agree with newsweek, and trust most of statistics.
The suspicioun I think comes from the fact, that many overestimate the word of "Best" while interpreting these kind of data!
Best, doesn't mean there is no "complaint corner" in the forum nor guarantying everybody being happy with everything!
And don't 4get relativity theory.

What's wrong with Israel?

It's interesting to observe that the 20 top countries go often to the 80 remaining countries to seek for Sea, Sex and Sun. So the top 20 are working hard and the remaining are relaxing and enjoying life.

it's not a valid argument. you (and the journalist who wrote the great article) haven't been either to the 99 other countries to know if they deserve their ranking. It's all virtual statistics.
I can understand the remark of the poster who hears from the media about the terrorists, the war, the secular/religious conflict etc.. and therefore is allowed to think that the quality of life there is probably not among the top.

Nothing.... but maybe some people think it's not allowed to say anything "negative" about it.

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I'm sure that many of the ex-patriates here would also vote Switzerland as the second best country in the world---behind their home country! I wonder how many Swiss would also rank Switzerland second---behind their home canton?

(As a patriate, I'm really not in a position to judge. But if the ranking are accurate, 11 isn't too shabby.)

Actually not. Coming from one of those 80 remaining countries, I can say that we work extremely hard for the multinational companies based in the top 20 countries which send money back to their headquarters.

Not too much money and time to "enjoy Sea, Sex and Sun". This is a tourist point of view, far from the reality of those who live in the 80 bottom countries.

A bit more than 1 month here in CH I can surely say that here you can enjoy the life much more than in my 'sunny and sexy' country, because here you are treated as a human being, not as an animal.

Heh, heh - good one

Exactly aperez, it's a rather romantic and idiotic statement to say "look how they (natives of poor country xx) smile all the time, they must be really happy, no wonder, it's great here for holidays"...
Life is pretty hard in most developing tourist destinations.
There are of course a lot of subjective factors that don't enter these statistics.
As an objective ranking it's pretty good I think. Does that make Switzerland the bestest country in the world ? Certainly not.
Does it make it a good country to live in for most of its populace ? Absolutely.

First page they say Israel is 23rd

Second page (view interactive) they say its 22nd. So what is it?

All these top-rated countries incl. Switzerland are definitely good places to live in terms of stability, income opportunities, education, etc. It's no big surprise that also the 100th survey of this kind comes to the conclusion that you're better off living in Europe or North America than in Nigeria or Pakistan.

However, I don't believe any of the authors has really spent enough time outside their home country to make a decent judgement which of these "good" countries is really best. If you don't mind 8 months without sunshine a year, but do value stability and safety, then Switzerland or Finland might be the right places for you. Personally, I would rather live in Australia than in Finland even if it doesn't look as good on paper......

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For me the Philippines is number 1. And NO, I am NOT a Philippino

I find the website actually pretty good and agree to the dimensions for the countries I know well enough.

However: Rating the dimension to the overall scoreboard makes no sense to me: It is highly personal how important a certain factor is for your. I give an example:
- We are "DINKs" and could therefore not care less about the education system of the country we live in the next years.
- Some people really do not want to live in the dark, so Finland and Sweden might not be the right choice for them.
- Some do not care about the political environment or value the fast business environment higher - so Singapore would score higher for them...

you could go on forever...