Australia has region’s best quality of life; RP 77th

Australia offers the highest quality of life in the Asia-Pacific region and Laos the worst, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said Wednesday.

Releasing its annual human development index, the UNDP said Australia was fifth overall on such indicators as life expectancy, literacy rate and gross domestic product per capita. Only Norway, Sweden, Canada and Belgium were higher.

Japan was the only other Asia-Pacific nation in the top 10, coming in ninth, behind the United States, Iceland and the Netherlands.

Laos was bottom of the league in Asia-Pacific at 143rd overall in the world. The UNDP counted South Asia as a separate region, with Sri Lanka top at 29th overall and Bangladesh bottom at 145th.

The findings showed Asia as a whole was middle of the road for quality of life, ranking behind the developed world and Latin America but ahead of Africa and the Middle East.

The UNDP stressed that the human development index was not a straight measure of wealth. It cited the cases of Pakistan and Vietnam which had similar incomes, but Vietnam "has done much more to translate that income into human development."

As a result, Vietnam comes in at 109th while Pakistan is at 138.

New Zealand was 19th overall, behind Ireland but just ahead of Italy. Hong Kong came in 23rd, beating fierce rival Singapore at 25th.

South Korea ranked 27th, lagging behind Cyprus while oil-rich Brunei was 32nd, just behind Barbados but ahead of the Czech Republic.

Malaysia is in 59th spot, behind Mexico, Cuba, Belarus, Panama and even Belize.

Thailand is 70th, behind Venezuela but ahead of Saudi Arabia while the Philippines lies 77th, behind Armenia but ahead of Oman and Kazakhstan.

China was 96th, behind the Dominican Republic and Uzbekistan but ahead of Tunisia.

Indonesia was 110th, lagging behind South Africa and Syria while Myanmar was 127th, behind Botswana. Cambodia was 130th, coming up at the rear to Ghana. – AFP