Norway Named Best Nation to Live In
By Evelyn Leopold, Reuters
UNITED NATIONS (Nov. 10) – Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden rank as the best five countries to live in …
The United States was ranked in eighth place, after Canada and Japan, in the report that rates not only per-capita income but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation’s well-being.
Country (long form): Kingdom of Norway
Capital: Oslo
Total Area: 125,182.04 sq mi = 324,220.00 sq km (slightly larger than New Mexico)
Population: 4,481,162 (July 2000 est.)
Estimated Population in 2050: 5,061,200
Languages: Norwegian (official)
Literacy: 100.0% total, N/A% male, N/A% female
Religions: Evangelical Lutheran 86% (state church), other Protestant and Roman Catholic 3%, other 1%, none and unknown 10% (1997)
Life Expectancy: 75.73 male, 81.77 female (2000 est.)
Government Type: constitutional monarchy
Currency: 1 Norwegian krone (NKr) = 100 oere
I think the long cold nights make for good think and that goes for chess,well wouldn’t you?
Ireland? That’s rather strange, since it’s a relatively poor country, and a good portion of it suffers from civil strife. Anyone been to Ireland, should it really be that high on the list?
No cold nights here
http://www.hervey.com.au
hoddys hang out
well bobby fischer was smarter than we thought.
http://www.fraserisland.au.com
I spend a lot of time here
it is so hard to take ..there is no place like home Hervey Bay- Fraser Island
Regarding the map: why did they type out Bottenhavet in swedish but not the baltic sea?
marcus, I think you are thinking of Northern Ireland…
This chart used special criterias to judge .
Why so many people try everything to buy a house in southern France , Switzerland , Italy , and Spain then , i wonder .
Here people dream to live in Canada or Australia for exotic destinations , southern Germany is beautiful just like northern Italy , Finland is a magnificent country too etc.. .
The highest rate of suicide are in the countries they named best to live , like Iceland or Japan for instance , the wheather in this countries is depressing , the variety of landscape , richness of history and places to visit isn’t like in countries like Italy or France , the cultutral activity isn’t comparable , and when they speak about education or health care , i’m surprised to see some countries in this list .
Netherlands should be top of the list. Imagine 41% with no religion!
Religions: Roman Catholic 31%, Dutch Reformed 13%, Calvinist 7%, Islam 6%, none 41% (2002)
why leave out baghdad?
so much adventure and thrills.
and if you are lucky, you’ll get to marry 70 virgins.
a. baba
If not , you get tortured at Abu Grahib and your house get stormed by soldiers during the night , charming
Funny stuff of a survey….Japan is a very very expensive place to live in…good only for a visit but not live…..
Hey 🙂 As a Norwegian I am pleased with the result. I live in Alta, on top of the map.
Well, the ranking probably do not weight the climate, to cold …
The best country to live in? Well, Norway is a safe place. Opportunities for all, all are taken care of. But Norwegians are a bit primitive (some Viking heritage).
I visited Norway in June with the brass band I play with (kinneil). Fantastic place, friendly people and amazing quality of life – but beer was £10 a pint ($20). You’d always be sober for a game of chess I suppose!
G. Lehany
Anonymous asked…
Regarding the map: why did they type out Bottenhavet in swedish but not the baltic sea?
—
I say:
Even a Swede like me finds this question difficult to answer.
It got my brain working as much as any other unanswered problem on
this excellent blog.
I do not think it is wrong to call it Bottenhavet since swedish is spoken all around Bottenhavet.
And Swedish is still an official language in Finland although only 5.6 percent of the people speaks it .
If an of languages so ignorant person as myself would move to the other side of Selkämeri ( Bottenhavet) in Suomi (Finland) it would be much like moving from France to Canada, thus having much less communication problems than the 10.6 percent spanish speaking US population.
Now back to the see:
According to
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fi.html
it is called the Gulf of Bothnia.
I have never really thrusted that agency in any domestic or foreign affairs. They probably got the name from Encyclopaedia Britannica (and in my old 1949 version of this amusing
writings they can’t even place Bottenhavet on the map).
A proper definition of Bottenhavet is
in my view – the part of the Baltic that is above the iland of Åland
and its archipelago and up the part of the see that is likely to stay free of ice (without the help of global warming). In other words the part of the Baltic where in wich you could feel safe from the Danish and other bad people from the south without getting your fleet in even worse trouble from the ice and the storm. In BOTTEN-havet (or the see with a bottom) you could easely anchor and ride out a storm since Bottenhavet is no more than 68 meters deep. And at the time of
its naming it was of course belived
to be even more shallow.
Me, myself will not go to bottom with this problem right now.
In fact, all I wanted to say was
that if I was to write something
international on the same spot on this map I would have written BOTNIA.
One reason is: Why use a German spelling when writing in Latin
on an English map – as CIA and
others do?
PS
Remember that the wikings visited
most parts of the roman empire
while on the other part only
their gold and silver coins
reached Bottenhavet.
And as for the “Americans” –
Remember that we visited you long before Columbus discovered the Indians!
If I was’nt so tiered I’ll write right now to the CIA:s world factbook
and make them change the typography on their map to Bottenhavet.
But I will now surely fall to sleep even before correcting my typos. Maybe sombody else with better connections to the CIA can help in this moast urgent matter.
I do sincerly recommend the cited CIA site. It is instructive to compare their so called facts with other so called facts.
As Susan so often says:
– Try this out as both as white and black,
working with a computer or discussing with a friend.
And here is an advice from me:
– You do not have to avoid world politics as much as Susan tryes to do. Fear not to speak out your mind if you live in a country where it is legal to do so (otherwise you are adviced to be more careful – but not quiet). And if you dear not speak out, remember that “Die Gedanken Sind Frei”.
In fact: The best things in life are free.
At least – Love and Peace is cheeper than Hate and War even if evaluated in US dollars.
Once again, do not fear. There is only about one chance in
3141592653589723 that you end up
reaching the same level of
incomprehensibleness in both
chess and politics as Bobby Fisher
if you follow any of this hastely written advice.
Good Night,
Sleep tight,
and beware of the bedbugs!
from Pelle in Uppsala, Sweden
Gorden i would charge you at least that for a beer if you turned up with a kinail too..haha..what the hell is it…
I feel a bit privileged every time I’m reminded that Norway is such a good place to live. Of course, the newspapers try their best to persuade us that life is miserable, but compared to most other places, Norwegians have lots of opportunities and security.
Tourists mention that Norway is expensive. That’s true, but Norwegians do have salaries to match it. Which of course means that vacations to almost any place feels cheap for us…