Poland ranks 1st within middle income group in The World's Best Countries

17.08.2010

Good job Poles! ;) A very fresh ranking made by Newsweek shows that Poland is quite a good place to live. The homeland of pierogi and kielbasa… well… there are also some other (than Polish food) contributions to the world civilization, so let's not be that petty :P … Poland – the homeland of Maria Curie, Copernicus, Chopin and the country where people speak one of the most difficult language ever invented ;) ranks 29th among 100 countries screened in The World's Best Countries ranking.

I always maintain some detachment from rankings like that. I think it's a healthy attitude ;) However, it's worth to mention that even better results will emerge when we take into consideration both the size of Poland, as well as its wealth. And so, among all countries classified as 'medium population' Poland ranks 5th (only Australia, Canada, South Korea and Spain are better), while among all countries classified as 'middle income group' Poland ranks 1st.

A little digression: This is not Poland, it's Denmark - one of my wonderlands. I've spent a lot of time there during one of my trips to Scandinavian countries, that I really love. As usually Scandinavia wins all rankings concerning quality of life. Denmark is 10th, Sweden 3rd, Norway 6th, and Finland wins the ranking. The picture above depicts a road between some Danish villages and this rural road is in my humble opinion beautiful. Indeed, that must be Scandinavia.

But let's go back to the subject. Detailed results gained by Poland are as below:

  • Education category – Poland ranks 17 with 91.05 / 100 points (one of the highest literacy rates in the world)
  • Health category – rank 34 with 78 / 100 points (life expectancy is 67 years, not good, not bad)
  • Quality of life – rank 36 with 74 / 100 points (only 2% of people lives for less than 2$ a day, just like in USA or Canada; lower number of homicides and low unemployment rate (8,9%))
  • Economic dynamism – rank 45 with 48 / 100 points (medium GDP but high % of manufacturing; difficulties in doing business and long new business start time)
  • Political environment – rank 18 with 82 / 100 points (good freedom rating, political stability and participation)

Overall score of Poland is 74,67. On the same time United States of America ranks 11th with overall score 85,51 (and being better than Poland in all categories but education). Canada ranks 7th, Japan 9th, Germany 12th, United Kingdom 14th, and France 16th.

This is how Central & Eastern Europe looks according to the ranking:

The original data can be found on Newsweek webpage: The World's Best Countries.