The Best Countries to Have Lived In During 2011

If your New Years resolution is to lose weight or quit smoking, consider yourself fortunate. At least it’s not “find a better country to live in”.

Moving to another country is a resolution that likely crossed many minds in 2011.

While 2011 was a fairly positive year here in Winnipeg, the best thing many of the world’s seven billion people can say about 2011 is that it’s almost over.

It was a year that brought several calamities: revolution in the Arab world, natural disasters in Japan and New Zealand and economic and political turmoil in Europe.

It ended with Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s deranged despot (and supposed golf pro), dropping dead and turning the fate of 24 million North Koreans, and every soldier in every army with a stake in East Asian peace, over to an inexperienced 27-year-old.

Though it’s unlikely that anyone in North Korea ever sees this blog, there has been a steady stream of visitors landing on this blog  by doing keyword searches for “best countries to live in” and “world’s best government”. This brings visitors to “The World’s Best Countries” (Nov. 17, 2009)  and “The World’s Best Governments” (Jan. 8, 2011).

Since there seems to be the demand out there for this information, I’ve decided to do a follow-up to the 2009 post, putting together a list of the world’s 20 best countries to have been living in in 2011 based on their rankings in four indexes:

• The United Nations’ Human Development Index, focusing on the basic elements of the good life, such as health and literacy.

• The Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, focusing on economic fundamentals.

• Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, focusing on honest, open government.

• Vision of Humanity’s Global Peace Index, focusing on citizens’ physical safety.

The idea here is that the better a country ranks across all four indexes, the closer it is likely to have come to securing the best possible life for its citizens. Taken together, the lessons learned from these countries could be the basis of an instruction manual, How to Run a Country and Do a Good Job of It.

Perhaps these rankings will even help someone who resolves to get out from under their abusive or inept government find the country that’s right for them in 2012.

(Click to view in a new window)