World's top 10 countries with best quality of life

New Delhi: Quality of life index is an overall estimation of quality of life in a country. GDP per person, cannot alone explain the broader quality of life in a country. It also depends on various subjective and objective factors. It uses various quality of life factors like health, family life, community life, material well being, political stability and security, climate and geography, job security, political freedom and gender quality.The Economist Intelligence Unit has calculated the quality life index of 111 countries Here is a compilation of 10 countries: 1.IrelandThe constituent country of UK, is the best in terms of quality scoring 8.333. It is one of the wealthiest in terms of GDP. The average life expectancy in Ireland in 2012 is 81 years, with 78.2 years for men and 83.6 years for women. It has the highest birth rate in the EU (16.8 births per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to an EU average of 10.7) and a very low infant mortality rate (3.5 per 1,000 live births). Ireland also has 0.747 of the World's top 500 Universities per capita, which ranks the country in 8th place in the world. Ireland ranks fifth in the world in terms of gender equality. In 2011, Ireland was ranked the most charitable country in Europe, and second most charitable in the world. Divorce rates in Ireland are very low compared to European Union averages (0.7 divorced people per 1,000 population in 2011) while the marriage rate in Ireland is slightly above the European Union average (4.6 marriages per 1,000 population per year in 2012). 2.SwitzerlandSwitzerland is one of the richest countries in the world by per capita gross domestic product, and has the highest wealth per adult (financial and non-financial assets) of any country in the world. Zürich and Geneva have respectively been ranked as the cities with the second and eighth highest quality of life in the world.It has the world's nineteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and the thirty-sixth largest by purchasing power parity. It is the fifteenth largest exporter and seventeenth largest importer of goods. Switzerland has one of the best environmental records among nations in the developed world; it was one of the countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 and ratified it in 2003. The country is heavily active in recycling and anti-littering regulations and is one of the top recyclers in the world, with 66% to 96% of recyclable materials being recycled, depending on the area of the country.In 2006 life expectancy at birth was 79 years for men and 84 years for women. 3.NorwayThe Scandinavian constitutional monarchy has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world. On a per-capita basis, it is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside the Middle East. Also from 2010 to 2012, Norway had the highest ranking on the Democracy Index. The OECD ranks Norway third in social mobility. Norway was the first independent country to introduce women's suffrage in 1913. Public education is virtually free, regardless of nationality. 4.LuxembourgOne of the world's old democracy with a constitutional monarch, is a developed country, with an advanced economy and the world's highest GDP (PPP) per capita, according to the World Bank. It ranks 24th in the United Nations Human Development Index, and 4th in the Economist Intelligence Unit's quality of life index. 5.SwedenThird largest in the European Union by area. In 2013, The Economist declared that the Nordic countries "are probably the best-governed in the world," with Sweden in first place. Also in 2013, The Reputation Institute declared Sweden to be the 2nd most reputable country on earth. Sweden's wealth, however, is distributed much less equally than its income, with a wealth Gini coefficient of 0.85, which is higher than the European average of 0.8.Sweden ranks in the top five countries with respect to low infant mortality. It also ranks high in life expectancy and in safe drinking water. 6.AustraliaWorld's sixth largest country by total area. Australia is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the world's 12th-largest economy. In 2012 Australia had the world's fifth-highest per capita income,Australia's military expenditure is the world's 13th-largest. With the second-highest human development index globally, Australia ranks highly in many international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, and the protection of civil liberties and political rights. 7.IcelandNordic country, that maintains Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. Iceland ranks high in economic and political stability. Gender equality is highly valued in Iceland. In the Global Gender Gap Report 2012, Iceland holds the top spot for the least gap, closely followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. 8.ItalyItaly has a market economy characterized by high per capita GDP and low unemployment rates. In 2012, it was the ninth-largest economy in the world and the fifth-largest in Europe in terms of nominal GDP. It is the tenth-largest economy in the world and fourth-largest in Europe in terms of PPP. Italy ranks as having the world's 2nd best healthcare system, and the world's 3rd best healthcare performance. Italy had the 12th highest worldwide life expectancy in 2010. 9.DenmarkDenmark is frequently ranked as the happiest country in the world in cross-national studies of happiness.Denmark ranks as having the world's highest social mobility, a high level of income equality, and has one of the world's highest per capita income. For 2013, Denmark is listed 15th on the Human Development Index and 9th on the inequality-adjusted HDI. Denmark ranks highly positive on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Legatum Prosperity Index, and as a full democracy on the Democracy Index.10.SpainSpain is a democracy organised in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the thirteenth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP. Spain also has high living standards with the tenth-highest quality of life index rating in the world as of 2005.