{"id":596550,"date":"2019-03-06T04:44:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T04:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"
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There\u2019s more to life than money, and economists know it. As new assessments of global living standards proliferate, attempting to gauge how healthy, happy and successful humans are depending on where they live, a pattern is slowly emerging.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While slight variations in data can throw up different winners, smaller countries are increasingly dominating the top of the lists while big countries with booming economies fall behind.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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A new analysis, the\u00a0Global Wellness Index\u00a0published by investment firm LetterOne, ranks\u00a0Canada as the best country out of the 151\u00a0nations evaluated. The U.S. trails\u00a0far behind, coming in at 37. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a tighter ranking of G-20 nations combined with the 20 most populous countries on the planet, South Africa comes in dead last, below Ukraine, Egypt and Iraq.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Based on a basket of metrics ranging from government healthcare spending to rates of depression, alcohol use, smoking, happiness and exercise, the new index is the latest attempt by economists to\u00a0evaluate the world\u00a0beyond economic growth. Last month, Bloomberg\u2019s own research named Spain the world\u2019s healthiest country.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A common\u00a0thread in both surveys, and others like them, is that the\u00a0top ranks are increasingly filled with smaller countries. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This may be tied to researchers developing new metrics for the modern world,\u00a0measures that don\u2019t necessarily correlate\u00a0economic health with actual health\u2014let alone\u00a0wellness\u2014at the expense of other, more nuanced barometers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe old concerns about growth\u2014that it does not include every country, or every person in growing countries\u2014are ever present,\u201d said Richard Davies, a former Bank of England and U.K. Treasury\u00a0economist\u00a0who compiled the Global Wellness\u00a0Index.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Davies\u2019 dashboard ranks\u00a0Canada highly due to its good scores for blood pressure, life expectancy and government healthcare spending, but it also pays close attention to the country\u2019s high happiness levels.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa, once a beacon of economic growth,\u00a0scores poorly for life expectancy, alcohol use, depression and diabetes.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the overall list, several\u00a0major economies struggle when ranked against smaller, healthier countries.\u00a0The global top 10 includes large nations such as the\u00a0Philippines and South Korea, but also finds room for\u00a0Oman,\u00a0Iceland, Maldives, Netherlands and\u00a0Singapore.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The U.K. was ranked\u00a015th, held back by high rates of obesity and inactivity. Big countries\u00a0such as Japan, Germany, France or Italy failed to make the news survey\u2019s\u00a0global top 25, with all four faring poorly for rates of high blood pressure.\u00a0Middle Eastern countries ranked relatively high\u00a0due to good scores in the alcohol category.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Where to Find Health, Wealth and Happiness<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Key G-20 nations fail to make top 25 of \u2018wellness\u2019 rankings<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The U.S. was hampered\u00a0by excessive obesity, depression, inactivity and other items, Davies said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Global Wellness Index focuses on ten key metrics: blood pressure, blood glucose, obesity, depression, happiness, alcohol use, tobacco use, exercise, healthy life expectancy\u00a0and government spending on healthcare. Data was gleaned\u00a0from standard sources including the World Health Organization\u2019s\u00a0Global Health Observatory\u00a0and the United Nations, as well as the\u00a0World Happiness Report\u00a0and public health data. Countries are ranked from the weakest to the strongest across every metric. Any with more than one missing data point were excluded, leaving 151 in the final composite rankings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, G-20 nations were ranked alongside the \u201cP-20\u201d nations with the highest populations, to produce a list that excludes small nations but covers more than 95 percent of the global population.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile rich countries tend to lead, many emerging economies score more highly than some advanced nations. This is down to huge increases in life expectancy in these countries in recent years,\u201d Davies said, pointing also to high rates of depression and obesity in advanced countries.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe low scores for countries like South Africa\u2014an economy lauded for its growth rate in the 2000s\u2014shows that simply ranking an economy based on traditional economic metrics like GDP alone can miss important parts of the story when it comes to the well-being of a nation.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Economies of the future may end up being judged on three levels, Davies said.\u00a0Those could include\u00a0traditional measures of the whole economy, such as GDP and employment rates; indicators that point to how equitable and fair a country is; and a new layer including measures of health, happiness and well-being.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is that this top layer may be both the one the public care most about and the hardest to measure.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n