Best Countries According to Corruption, Homicide Rate, World Citizenship, Health, Income Equality, Annual Work Hours, and more

I wanted an impartial look at which countries on earth are doing best at the factors that matter to me, so I looked up maps and tables for Income Equality, Corruption, Homicide Rate, World Citizenship, Healthy Average Life Expectancy, Annual Work Hours Per Worker, Abortion Rate, Capital Punishment Rate, Freedom, Economic Freedom. I chose the first of these factors because I thought it would be nice to live in a country where I had lots of free time in health and safety without listening to a lot of griping about the government and the rich.  I added more factors later, some of them by request. If you can think of important factors I omitted, please leave me a comment. Here are the numbers and the countries that are doing best on earth.

Summary

Northern Europe, Iceland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia do well on most measures, with top prize going to northern Europe, particularly Denmark and Switzerland.  Close behind Europe, Australia and Canada rank consistently well.  Bucking the agreement of every other measure, Northern Europe (with highly-ranked Switzerland and Spain not exactly northern in European terms) is not the winner for healthy life expectancy, which goes to more southern countries led by Singapore, Japan, Cyprus, and Australia.

Carrying the contest through measures added since I first made this post, the most consistent winners are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark.  And an arbitrary long list of countries that significantly beat the USA includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Iceland.  If I forgot a country please let me know.

Corruption

This graph is from Wikipedia.  Winners: Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Canada

Homicide Rate

This graph is from Wikipedia. Lightest blue countries have least homicides.  Winners: Spain and European corridor from Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, to Italy

World Citizenship

The Good Country Index  calculates the good that countries do in the world.  The top 50 countries are listed below.

Overall Rankings		Science and Technology	Culture	Int'l Peace and Security	World Order	Planet and Climate	Prosperity and Equality	Health and Wellbeing
1st	Ireland	20	7	33	4	45	1	9
2nd	Finland	7	18	53	12	14	3	12
3rd	Switzerland	6	32	71	10	16	2	10
4th	Netherlands	18	2	97	3	23	8	2
5th	New Zealand	10	25	37	17	7	41	17
6th	Sweden	8	14	111	8	3	4	8
7th	United Kingdom	1	12	94	9	30	9	6
8th	Norway	40	24	58	7	4	14	16
9th	Denmark	14	9	88	5	26	35	5
10th	Belgium	15	1	100	16	56	5	3
11th	France	12	26	92	18	10	28	15
12th	Canada	28	20	106	14	2	30	4
13th	Germany	11	5	109	1	29	33	18
14th	Austria	2	4	104	2	43	24	31
15th	Australia	16	38	89	13	6	36	14
16th	Luxembourg	55	10	101	19	12	19	13
17th	Iceland	24	37	27	15	1	101	44
18th	Cyprus	3	35	86	21	22	37	49
19th	Spain	37	23	120	24	24	49	1
20th	Italy	38	22	102	11	44	65	19
21st	United States of America	26	41	114	28	39	53	7
22nd	Costa Rica	61	64	35	25	19	42	76
23rd	Malta	64	3	66	6	36	99	50
24th	Chile	52	47	42	27	18	31	114
25th	Japan	46	44	77	56	11	71	33
26th	Kenya	47	84	20	48	98	16	28
27th	Singapore	21	39	80	121	20	7	58
28th	Slovenia	17	17	87	23	68	111	26
29th	Guatemala	91	57	29	76	42	21	39
30th	Greece	34	36	65	33	32	87	71
31st	Colombia	57	83	43	107	15	29	29
32nd	Bulgaria	19	27	79	36	80	70	55
33rd	Panama	81	43	70	30	37	44	66
34th	Estonia	31	6	107	80	66	66	21
35th	Portugal	42	19	116	44	48	61	51
36th	Mauritius	69	33	40	32	122	27	63
37th	Israel	5	40	81	68	35	63	103
38th	Ghana	59	62	12	71	72	6	115
39th	Ecuador	105	79	10	39	38	90	38
40th	Zambia	90	85	21	47	21	11	124
41st	Uruguay	104	58	5	35	13	94	95
42nd	Slovakia	43	21	110	49	51	69	62
43rd	Czech Republic	4	8	121	34	77	100	67
44th	South Africa	29	60	15	31	102	121	56
45th	Jamaica	65	59	23	62	87	51	72
46th	Croatia	35	30	62	73	52	85	84
47th	Republic of Korea	30	34	119	45	71	60	65
48th	Namibia	74	52	30	89	34	25	120
49th	Brazil	75	49	83	37	5	123	52
50th	Jordan	39	78	2	101	99	81	25

Healthy Average Life Expectancy

This data is for 2012 from WHO for both sexes.  Winners at top.

Singapore	76
Japan	75
Cyprus	74
Australia	73
Switzerland	73
Spain	73
Italy	73
Republic of Korea	73
San Marino	73
Andorra	72
Canada	72
France	72
Iceland	72
Israel	72
Luxembourg	72
Monaco	72
New Zealand	72
Sweden	72
Austria	71
Belgium	71
Germany	71
Finland	71
United Kingdom	71
Greece	71
Ireland	71
Malta	71
Netherlands	71
Norway	71
Portugal	71
Chile	70
Denmark	70
Slovenia	70
United States of America	70
Costa Rica	69
Czech Republic	69
Lebanon	69
Bosnia and Herzegovina	68
Brunei Darussalam	68
China	68
Colombia	68
Croatia	68
Kuwait	68
Qatar	68
Uruguay	68
United Arab Emirates	67
Argentina	67
Cuba	67
Estonia	67
Maldives	67
Mexico	67
Panama	67
Peru	67
Poland	67
Slovakia	67
Seychelles	67
Bulgaria	66
Bahrain	66
Barbados	66
Dominican Republic	66
Ecuador	66
Hungary	66
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	66
Montenegro	66
Nauru	66
Oman	66
Romania	66
Suriname	66
Thailand	66
Tunisia	66
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	66
Viet Nam	66
Albania	65
Georgia	65
Sri Lanka	65
Lithuania	65
Latvia	65
Mauritius	65
Paraguay	65
Saudi Arabia	65
Serbia	65
Turkey	65
Antigua and Barbuda	64
Bahamas	64
Belarus	64
Brazil	64
Cook Islands	64
Cabo Verde	64
Honduras	64
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	64
Jamaica	64
Jordan	64
Libya	64
Malaysia	64
Nicaragua	64
Niue	64
Samoa	64
Azerbaijan	63
Belize	63
Dominica	63
Grenada	63
Saint Kitts and Nevis	63
Saint Lucia	63
Republic of Moldova	63
El Salvador	63
Ukraine	63
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	63
Armenia	62
Algeria	62
Guatemala	62
Indonesia	62
Palau	62
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	62
Tonga	62
Vanuatu	62
Egypt	61
Iraq	61
Kyrgyzstan	61
Cambodia	61
Morocco	61
Russian Federation	61
Trinidad and Tobago	61
Uzbekistan	61
Bangladesh	60
Fiji	60
Micronesia (Federated States of)	60
Kazakhstan	60
Mongolia	60
Philippines	60
Tajikistan	60
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	59
Bhutan	59
Marshall Islands	59
Nepal	59
Solomon Islands	59
Syrian Arab Republic	59
Kiribati	58
Tuvalu	58
India	57
Lao People's Democratic Republic	57
Myanmar	57
Namibia	57
Sao Tome and Principe	57
Timor-Leste	57
Pakistan	56
Turkmenistan	56
Ethiopia	55
Guyana	55
Madagascar	55
Rwanda	55
Senegal	55
Eritrea	54
Gabon	54
Ghana	54
Yemen	54
Botswana	53
Comoros	53
Gambia	53
Kenya	53
Mauritania	53
Papua New Guinea	53
Sudan	53
Djibouti	52
Haiti	52
Liberia	52
United Republic of Tanzania	52
South Africa	51
Benin	50
Burkina Faso	50
Congo	50
Malawi	50
Niger	50
Togo	50
Afghanistan	49
Guinea	49
Uganda	49
Zambia	49
Zimbabwe	49
Burundi	48
Cameroon	48
Mali	48
South Sudan	48
Guinea-Bissau	47
Equatorial Guinea	47
C?te d'Ivoire	46
Nigeria	46
Swaziland	46
Mozambique	45
Somalia	45
Angola	44
Democratic Republic of the Congo	44
Chad	44
Central African Republic	43
Lesotho	43
Sierra Leone	39

Annual Work Hours Per Worker

This data is from OECD.  Winners at top are all from northern Europe.

Netherlands	1381
Germany	1396.6
Norway	1419.7
France	1479
Ireland	1529
Denmark	1545.95
Belgium	1574
Luxembourg	1609
Sweden	1621
Slovenia	1640
Switzerland
United Kingdom	1654
Finland	1672
Spain	1686
Portugal	1691
Austria	1699
Iceland	1706.1
Canada	1710
Australia	1728
New Zealand	1739
Japan	1745.201
Italy	1752
OECD countries	1765.4884
Slovak Republic	1785
United States	1789.9219
Czech Republic	1800.2314
Turkey	1855.0575
Hungary	1888.45
Estonia	1889
Israel	1910
Poland	1929
Russian Federation	1982
Chile	2029
Greece	2033.9604
Korea
Mexico	2225.66

Abortion Rate

This data is from UN Data. I have done some followup research on the lower values at the top of this list, and many of them are not credible.  The value for Switzerland does seem to be a correct indication that Switzerland has a comparatively low abortion rate.  Most of our usual suspects don't do well by this measure, with many of them barely beating the USA.  That said, all of them do beat the USA on this list, with Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, Japan, and Singapore doing best among usual suspects.

Country or Area	Year	Value
Poland	2004	0
Brazil	2003	0
Panama	2000	0
Mexico	2003	0.1
Portugal	2002	0.2
Qatar	2004	1.2
Austria	2001	1.3
India	2001	3.1
South Africa	2000	4.5
Greece	1999	5
Croatia	2004	5.7
Switzerland	2004	7.3
Belgium	2003	7.5
Germany	2004	7.8
Uzbekistan	2004	7.8
Spain	2003	8.3
Tunisia	1996	8.6
Azerbaijan	2004	9
Albania	2003	9.6
Netherlands	2004	10.4
Italy	2004	10.6
Bahrain	2002	11
Finland	2004	11.1
Slovakia	2005	11.7
Czech Republic	2005	12.2
Japan	2004	12.3
Singapore	2004	12.6
Tajikistan	2003	12.6
Armenia	2004	13.9
Israel	2004	13.9
Lithuania	2004	13.9
Iceland	2004	14.1
Denmark	2005	14.3
Norway	2005	15.2
Slovenia	2004	15.2
Canada	2003	15.2
Kyrgyzstan	2004	15.8
Dominican Republic	1998	16
France	2002	16.9
United Kingdom	2005	17
Republic of Moldova	2004	17.6
Macedonia	2001	18.4
Georgia	2005	19.1
New Zealand	2005	19.7
Australia	2003	19.7
Sweden	2005	20.2
United States of America	2003	20.8
Bulgaria	2003	21.3
Seychelles	2003	21.6
Mongolia	1997	21.7
Hungary	2005	23.4
China	1998	24.2
Cuba	2004	24.8
Latvia	2004	27.3
Ukraine	2004	27.5
Romania	2004	27.8
Belarus	2004	31.7
Estonia	2005	33.3
Kazakhstan	2004	35
Vietnam	2000	35.2
Russian Federation	2004	53.7

Capital Punishment Rate

Capital punishment is a little different than the other categories since most of the civilized world has stopped executing criminals. This graph is from Wikipedia.  The blue countries have abolished it.  The green and brown countries have generally stopped the practice.  The red countries retain the practice.  Winners include the usual suspects.

Freedom

Freedom is also a little different, since it is subjective.  Freedom House rates countries as Free, Partly Free, and Not Free.  This graph came from Wikipedia.  Winners again include the usual suspects, and USA is among the free countries.

Economic Freedom

This graph is from Wikipedia.  Economic freedom is a little more competitive, with only Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Singapore getting top marks among the usual suspects.  Hong Kong also gets top marks. And Denmark barely misses the cut (see table in referenced article).  

Income Equality

This graph is from Wikipedia.  Winners: Northern Europe and Kazakhstan

The end for now.
Tom