UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)–A United Nations Human Development Report for 1999 released Monday–ranked Armenia the 88th best place to live in the world. Turkey was ranked 86th while Azerbaijan trailed at 103.
Canada–for the sixth consecutive year–ran’s first among best places to live–while Norway treats women better than any other country–according to the 1999 UN Human Development Report–released on Monday.
This year’s survey–like its predecessors–ran’s 174 nations according to how people live–factoring in health care–life expectancy–education and income.
In the overall index–Norway is in second place–followed by the United States–Japan–Belgium–Sweden–Australia–the Netherlands–Iceland–Britain–France–Switzerland–Finland–Germany–Denmark–Austria–Luxembourg–New Zealand–Italy and Ireland.
At the other end of the scale–the 10 least developed countries in human terms are–from the bottom up–Sierra Leone–Niger–Ethiopia–Burkina Faso–Burundi–Mozambique–Guinea-Bissau–Eritrea–Mali and the Central African Republic.
Canada slips to fourth place on the list–and the United States is in eighth place on the "gender empowerment" index. This measures how many women are in parliament or government–how many have professional or technical jobs–and how much they earn–based on per capita income.