Norway Lights Up the World

Two interesting stories about Norway.

Norway Tops Nations in Quality of Life : Discovery News: "The UN's annual A-to-Z of global wealth, poverty, health and education highlighted in its 20th anniversary edition though that despite 'growth surges' in the Asia-Pacific region, it is becoming ever more difficult to break into the rich club of nations.

Oil-rich Norway -- with its 81.0 years of life expectancy, average annual income of $58,810 and 12.6 years of schooling -- has now topped the Human Development Index (HDI) for all but two years since 2001.

It is not the best in any individual category -- average income in Liechtenstein for example is a wallet-busting $81,011 -- but Norway's all-round performance gave it a crushing superiority in the UN Development Program (UNDP) annual rankings.Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Ireland took the following places in the top five. Zimbabwe came bottom of the 169 nations ranked, behind Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Zimbabwe, where in stark contrast life expectancy is just 47 years and per capita income $176, has been ranked at the bottom of the table for the past five years..."