Quality of life gets better and better in Asia

Nov 6, 2010

Study puts 5 Asian nations among top 10 most improved ones

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations report ranking countries according to their citizens' quality of life has found that Asia has made the biggest strides in recent decades.

Nations which have risen most in the rankings of the Human Development Index include 'growth miracles' such as China, which has climbed eight places in the last five years to 89th.

East Asia and the Pacific had the strongest performance of any region over the past 40 years - twice the average worldwide progress, according to the latest rankings.

The annual study, which compared 169 countries between 2005 and this year, placed five Asian nations in the top-10 list of countries showing the most improvement.

These were China (No. 2), Nepal (No. 3), Indonesia (No. 4), Laos (No. 6) and South Korea (No. 8).

The report aims to give a broader assessment of quality of life than just income - by including health, education, gender equality and political freedom - and lead writer Jeni Klugman said most of the world has seen 'dramatic progress' since 1970.

China, the second highest index achiever since 1970, has been successful mainly because of income rather than health or education, the report said. Its per capita income has increased 21-fold over four decades, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. Yet its school enrolment has dropped since 1970 and life expectancy has not improved as much as that in other nations.

India demonstrated more modest progress, increasing its ranking by one notch to 119th.

Singapore also improved its ranking by one place to 27th, which makes it the highest ranked South-east Asian country, ahead of Brunei (37th) and Malaysia (57th).

The report noted that Singapore has made progress since 2005. Life expectancy at birth has increased by one year to 80.7 years, average schooling years almost by one year to 8.8 and gross national income per capita by around 8per cent to US$48,893 (S$62,870).

On a global scale, average life expectancy rose from 59 to 70 years, primary school enrolment grew from 55 to 70per cent, and per capita incomes doubled to more than US$10,000. Poor nations have made particular progress.

Despite the 'growth surges' in the Asia-Pacific region, the report said it is becoming ever more difficult to break into the rich club of nations.

Norway - with its 81.0 years of life expectancy and average annual income of US$58,810 - has now topped the list for all but two years since 2001.

In stark contrast, Zimbabwe - which came bottom - has a life expectancy of just 47 years and per capita income of US$176.

'The divide between developed and developing countries persists: A small subset of countries has remained at the top of the world income distribution and only a handful of countries that started out poor have joined that high income group,' the report concluded.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Moving up

The top 10 countries which showed the most improvement between 2005 and this year are:

1. Oman

2. China

3. Nepal

4. Indonesia

5. Saudi Arabia

6. Laos

7. Tunisia

8. South Korea

9. Algeria

10. Morocco