singingringingtree

Here are the top 20 countries in which to live based on UN data 2009:

Top 20 countries on the Human Development Index:

1. Norway

2. Australia

3. Iceland

4. Canada

5. Ireland

6. Netherlands

7. Sweden

8. France

9. Switzerland

10. Japan

11. Luxembourg

12. Finland

13. United States

14. Austria

15. Spain

16. Denmark

17. Belgium

18. Italy

19. Liechtenstein

20. New Zealand

Source: UN Human Development Report 2009

Full story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-live-in.html#

Essex_Man

Who in there right mind would live Norway or Iceland. Half of those counties are crap and I wouldn't want to live them even if you paid me. LOL Iceland indeed....

iaink

Thats it then, Im off to Norway


The canadian media seems to get in far less of a froth about these listings since its been knocked off its perenial perch as #1 (Other than to point out that the US is much lower down the list of course!)



When I came here the Quinte region had recently been declared #1 for quality of life in Ontario for the second time, which in turn was the #1 province in the #1 country in the word. I had literally fallen into a job in the best place in the world! Those were the days eh

iaink

Norwegians and Icelanders presumably? I dont think its intended as an immigration hit list!

As the article says, its based on 2007 data mostly, the economy in Iceland was a little different then. Given that in Canada you deal with winter anyway, I dont see a problem with a liberal paradise like Norway, with great education and healthcare, albeit at the expense of high taxes. The fact that you wouldnt live there even if paid to is simply an extra bonus

Cookie

Britain has dropped out of the top 20 (previously in 16th place)

Essex_Man

I'll help you pack and I drive you to Airport.

Well it's the language barrier. Unless you've been a child and learn a few languages so that part of the brain it set for learning languages. It very difficult to learn another language. I tried and lived in Marbella Spain. What nightmare that was. LOL. It can take you 10 years to learn another language to really fully understand it and to think it and to read and write. So all the benefits of living there are going to be missed. Unless you like low pay unskilled work. Like being a bog washer.....

dbd33

I've worked in Norway. I managed quite well with English and the valuable Norwegien phrase "de ul" (spellled phonetically).

Essex_Man

That is not really living there. You don't full understand was is fully going on. Brits piss off the Spanish with similar tricks. Living there never fully leaning Spanish and only speaking a pigeon Spanish and living in English enclaves. You miss so much by living this way and that is not the point, The point to living IMO in a non English speaking county is to fully integrate 100%, not 25% nor 50% not even 75% but the full 100%. It certain piss off the Brits as well when people live the same way in the UK.

iaink

Im not entirely sure the purpose of the UN HDR list is to act as a hit list for potential immigrants as much as it is a tool for governments to look at what they are doing in comparison with those countries that have more effective education, healthcare and economic programs...

As such the linguistic difficulties are not really relevant, although I hear Icelandic is one of the hardest languages to learn. One of my friends dads was a customs and immigration officer...he chose to learn it, although Im not sure how much use he ever got out of it

Essex_Man

LOL How many times would get to practice it outside Iceland. Come to think of I've yet to me an Icelander. Spanish was nightmare for me to learn. The Spanish ignore me, if I spoke or pronounced word wrong. So tell me about it.....I found it hard. but I never lived in Spain and used my English to get by...You really got to start as child so the brain is set to learning languages. For me being dyslexic is was double hard. I have e-nuff trouble with English. LOL.

iaink

Well, I'm guessing that if its a man in uniform massacring your mother tongue as you come through Gatwick airport, its probably just as well try and figure out what he's saying or face the unpleasant consequences.

He was fluent in half a dozen languages anyway, I think we chose Icelandic just for the challenge!

I suck at languages, that's one reason my kids will go through French immersion.(at least at first) Thankfully it doesn't seem to be a hereditary condition.

rae

i think the list has australia and austria mixed up surely.

Aviator

Looking at the Moving Back to the UK forum, it seems most expats are moving back from whence they came from Australia.

the troubadour

Iceland being a somewhat failed state with a crashed economy and Ireland,where a correction in the housing bubble together with a major down turn in the economy resulting in ever rising unemployment,rather makes the whole list a farce to say the least.
Icelandic language is possibly a little difficult to learn(very old ) but the hardest European tongues are judged to be Finnish and Hungarian by far.

Aviator

I believe the hardest language to learn for non native speakers is English.

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The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

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Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

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When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

There was a row among oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

A buck does funny things when the does are present.

A seamstress and sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections my jaw got number.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

I took the lead and poured the molten lead into the container.