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Belarus ranks 61st in UN quality-of-life index

Belarus has moved up six places to the 61st in the UN list of best places in the world to live.

The assessment came in a so-called human development index, a measure of well-being published by the UN Development Program for the past 20 years that combines individual economic prosperity with education levels and life expectancy.

Norway with its 81.0 years of life expectancy and average annual income of $58,810 topped the Human Development Index (HDI), released on November 4. Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Ireland followed at the top of the standings.

Zimbabwe came in last among the 169 nations ranked, behind Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Belarus scored best among the CIS countries but fared worse than its western neighbors, including Latvia that ranked 48th, Lithuania (44th) and Poland (41st). Russia and Ukraine were 65th and 69th , respectively.

Along with Russia, Ukraine and six sub-Saharan African countries, Belarus has now 69.6 years of life expectancy, which is below 1970 levels, with the UNDP linking the decrease to the tougher conditions for adults after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In its written comments, the press office of the Belarusian foreign ministry hailed the country’s place in the index.

In the last several years, Belarus has been steadily performing as a country with a high level of human development, the press office said.

The ranking testifies to the efficiency of measures taken by Belarus to make it among the top 50 countries in the index as directed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka during his annual address to the National Assembly and the Belarusian nation this past April, the press office added.