OTTAWA – Canada dropped to eighth from fourth place in an annual United Nations report that for 20 years has been measuring quality of life and development among countries.
The index, released Thursday, is a composite measurement of factors that include health, wealth and education.
At the top of the human development index, a spot Canada routinely held throughout the 1990s, is Norway, followed by Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Ireland, Lichtenstein and the Netherlands.
Sweden and Germany follow Canada, to round out the top 10.
While Canada’s fall might seem drastic, UN research analysts said an updated and more refined methodology make it difficult to compare the 2010 report with those from earlier years.
"So we’ve presented the 2010 data with respect to the moving average over the past five years," said Emma Samman, senior research analyst with the human development report office.
"And looking at that, Canada actually hasn’t changed positions. The average rank since 2005 has been No. 8."
When interpreting the rankings, one must also bear in mind that the countries at the top of the index are separated by very small differences, Samman said.
"Very tiny changes can lead to changes in the ranking," she said. "There’s about a 0.001 index separating the top two countries."
The report found that a vast majority of people in the 135 countries studied – which together represent 92 per cent of the world’s population – have experienced improved health, life expectancy, income and literacy rates since 1990.
Oman was highlighted as the country that improved the most over the past 40 years, followed by China, Nepal, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
Oman, along with most of the other most improved countries, was applauded for investing in public health and education. China, however, was singled out for being the only country to make the list due solely to income performance.
Zimbabwe was last in the overall rankings, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Burundi and Mozambique rounding out the bottom five.
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