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Britain ranked #27 on best countries to be born in 2013, down from #7 in 1988.

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Reply 60

deedee123

how on earth is taiwan so high? and israel is 7 places above us? hmmm i don't think so.

Reply 61

AbsurdBanana

Original post by Dhaal_Chawal

Why isn't Qatar on that list? They have the highest GDP per Capita in the world.

Wealth ≠ Quality of Life

Reply 62

whyumadtho

Britain is behind Chile?

...wat

And how is Saudi Arabia so high? Whose perspective is included in this?

Reply 63

username570224

Could be because there are more countries now than there were in 1988?

Reply 64

Dhaal_Chawal

Original post by AbsurdBanana

Wealth ≠ Quality of Life

I didn't say "Why aren't they number one?!" I asked why they aren't on the list.

Reply 65

DorianGrayism

Original post by GR3YFOXXX

NI is not comparable to the Republic of Ireland.

I live in the North, and its safe to say N.I its worse than both ROI and GB.

R.o.Ireland is so high on the list as;

It has free Uni education.
Great Uni's.
Really high wages.
Good welfare state.
High number of high-end jobs in Dublin (admittedly less so outside, but still 1/3 of the population live within commuting distance to Dublin).
A wide sense of political harmony.
A great series of presidents.
No serious problem with racism.

I could go on...

I can't believe people are shocked at how highly ranked the R.o.Ireland is. Do people still think they live barefoot in cottages with gas lamps eating spuds and practicing river dance?

The Universities are ok. They are not that great. Especially, if you compare them to compare them to good British Universities.

The High wages are because the living costs of places like Dublin are very high.

Commuting in Dublin,really is not a great experience.

Well, if you mean that minorities are not regularly beaten up then I guess there is no serious problem. However, there is definitely a problem. Though, I wouldn't call it endemic.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 66

DorianGrayism

Original post by silverbolt

as someone who lives in the west of Ireland (and spent many years in Birmingham) give me my home county every day. Britain is hardly a riviera for sunshine - and now im used again to the Euro, its not that bad (spending wise, currency its horrible)

I love the West of Ireland. I was in Galway for a bit. It is a lovely place.

Though, let's be honest, Birmingham is a hole. You were always going to win with the West.

Reply 67

Vian

27^th! I thought it'd at least be in the top 20. One of these days I've got to go see if these Scandinavian countries are all they're made out to be!

Original post by Mrkingpenguin

Im sure all the girls on TSR would love to live in UAE instead of britian and not be allowed outside without a man..abolute joke

Original post by Mrkingpenguin

Still under sharia law bro...hardly equal

What on earth are you on about? I think you're mixing up UAE with Saudi Arabia :doh:

Reply 68

chrisawhitmore

Original post by k9markiii

It's behind united states we can now safely write this off. I don't know what they are basing those scores on. Maybe better for money or lack of tax or something but not best quality of life.

Some of my favourite categories:Index of how boring a country is, number of Economist readers per million and quality of culture (for which the USA got the highest score in 1988)

Reply 69

ncsoftlover

UK is still my one of my most liked country, I am obsessed with this country.

Reply 70

Ephemera

Singapore is in the top ten? What? There's barely anything there...

Reply 71

ncsoftlover

Original post by doggyfizzel

The "places to be born" suggests looking towards the future as opposed to "places to live" being the present.

I don't see how the future outlook for the UK is so negative compared to some of those nations, I mean we are behind Japan, a country which presently is great but has a huge public debt and a horrible ageing population, why would that be a great place to be born now?

a great place to be born in and have a nice childhood, but suffer greatly in old age?

Original post by AspiringGenius

wow even Chile and Israel beat us.

And Norway? Y U NO TOP?!?!? :colone:

I guess you just can't top very list, one of the most impressive thing about Norway is not only that it tops many development index lists, but in every list it doesn't top, it ranks consistently very high. If we were to do an analysis on all countries in the world using 30+ development scale rankings, I'm pretty sure Norway will end up being the country holding the most "top 10" positions.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 72

Scott006

I think the UK is a pretty good place to be born, more so than people give it credit for. Firstly you're getting English as your mother tongue, this is incredibly convenient.

But beyond that we have great safety nets and entitlements (although these vary across the UK), such as the NHS and various other benefits. Before you start attacking the NHS, try living somewhere where you need to fork out for insurance and then discover you actually aren't covered due to a needle in the haystack of small print.

And of course, access to some of the best universities in the world for free or at a reduced cost!

Not to mention other perks such as EU citizenship.

Of course, as everywhere, there are disadvantaged people in the UK. But I think we have much better (although clearly not outstanding) prospects for social mobility than many countries on that list, such as access schemes at universities.

Reply 73

Coolkat

Original post by tengentoppa

Pretty hypocritical of you to condemn people for having stereotypes of the conflict and then coming out with this. If you don't know a thing about the conflict don't comment. Israel was a country that the allied nation s created on Palestinian soil. Israel has since then created settlements in Palestine and driven Palestinians out of their homes. The Israelis are undoubtedly in the wrong here but no country will do anything because Israel has the support of the USA. That is the true cause of the conflict.

Said it like it is. <3

Reply 74

The Assassin

Original post by Boom533

Could be because there are more countries now than there were in 1988?

What?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 75

Farid Jalil

I don't see how the US is higher then the UK!!!

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 76

jco19

I find it interesting that the largely male dominated "Economist Intelligence Unit" ranks Saudi Arabia above Argentina, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania and Russia. Women in Saudi Arabia are the legal equivalent of dirt, but never mind, their male dominated nation is oil rich, so clearly they must be happy right? What a load of non-sense!

Thankfully this list is not a true reflection of reality, it's only TE's perspective. The United Nations HDI is the real deal.