The most liveable city, country in the world?

Every year there is a report in the Melbourne news papers about how Melbourne has ranked amongst the world's most liveable cities. The past five years Vancouver has won the ranking of "world's most liveable city."
The ranking is devised by the Economist Intelligence Unit. I wonder how accurate and useful their listing is though. There are 140 cities in their list. Vancouver comes in at #1 and Melbourne at #2. The full list of 140 cities is not published (you have to pay $5000 for that!). But the bottom ten are also published. Harare comes in at the bottom and then Port Moresby in second last. That pricked my interest because Port Moresby is not that big a city. I looked it up, Port Moresby has 340 000 people. So this proves that their list is very incomplete. A simple internet search shows that there are 198 cities with a population of 2 million or more.
Another factor that calls the list into question is that Australia now has among the highest cost in housing compared to average annual income, in the world. This surely must push Australian cities further down the list. Melbourne is one of the most expensive cites for housing in the world, I could never realistically imagine being able to afford living there.
This set my curiosity going that there must be other research on quality of life. All of this "research" must be taken with a grain of salt. Much of it is biased and based upon certain criteria that come from a western world view. Many countries in the world could claim to be the best if they believed that their way of life is the bench mark to measure against. It has often annoyed me to hear the phrase "Australia is the best country in the world" come from Australians. Yes, Australia is the best country in the world for Australians, but this is such a subjective statement.
Nevertheless, I am Australian. Well as other third culture people have pointed out, I am 75% Australian and 75% Russian*. (*Bearing in mind that I also endeavour to relate to and understand indigenous cultures here.) Still, I will never lose my Australian-ness in life, but as other things are added to my identity, "Australian" becomes an inadequate adjective for my identity. This makes a good preface for analysing a "quality of life index".

The "quality of life index" is put together by a journal called "International Living." Here is a quote of how they put their index together:

To produce this annual Index we consider nine categories: Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk, and Climate. This involves a lot of number crunching from “official” sources, including government websites, the World Health Organization, and The Economist, to name but a few. We also take into account what our editors from all over the world have to say about our findings.
(http://internationalliving.com/2010/02/quality-of-life-2010/)

International Living freely admit that they are biased, and that when they see some numbers from governments that they believe to fantastic, they adjust them as they see fit. It just shows that the exercise is an estimate at best, and perhaps even a guess. If they believe that they are correct in having a bias, they could easily be wrong too. I say all this, because I am not trying to say that one country is "better" than another, it is so subjective.

[A funny story illustrates the concept of a "better" culture or country. Not too long ago we had a weekend away with some people from the Vineyard fellowship. On Saturday evening meat was cooked over the fire, which in Russian culture is called "shashlik."  The Russians with us were enjoying the meal immensely, we enjoyed it too....  
-Then someone asked me the question "do you have shashlik in Australia?"  (Do we cook meat over the fire in Australia? Um, yeah.) 
-My answer was of course "yes". 
-The next question that came my way was "which is better, Russian or Australian bbq/ shashlik?" 
(At this point I was feeling a little trapped.)
-"Well, one's culture is always the best", was my answer. Trying to imply that Russian shashlik is the tastiest to a Russian, and that Australian bbq is the tastiest to an Australian. (There is no such thing as an objective scientific method to determine which food is the tastiest in the world.)
A few moments later as this person digested my response, they then replied... "So Russian is best right!?"
I had no come back for such a flawless argument!]

So it is worth having a look at the numbers, bearing in mind that they are subjective. There are nine different categories of comparison.
The "score card" can be found at: http://www1.internationalliving.com/qofl2010/
Method of scoring: http://internationalliving.com/2010/02/learn-scores-quality/
The top country in each category is supposed to have a score of 100, as a bench mark. But curiously not all categories have a country with a score of 100.

1) Leisure and culture.   
The top countries in this category are Sweden with a score of 94 and Finland with a score of 93.
Australia scores 82 and Russia 67. Russia is not too far behind. Russia has an excellent education system and they are known for their highly developed culture in the arts and museums etc.
The countries that score lowest here are some African and Pacific countries. Curiously, Pacific cultures are described as being some of the happiest on earth, yet they bomb out in the Leisure and Culture category.

2) Economy.
Which country has the best economic conditions for residents in the world?  Liechtenstein is the bench mark with a score of 100. Qatar scores 92, Norway and Bermuda score 89. Australia fairs well but not amazingly at 71, Russia with a pass mark at 53.
Russia's interest rates have come down in the last five years. A home loan was at 26% five years ago. It is now down to about 14%. Things are steadily and slowly improving here, yet there was certainly a hiccup during the financial crisis.

3) Environment.
How does the environment effect quality of life? In ways such as living space, land set aside for conservation, levels of pollution etc.
Which is the cleanest, greenest and roomiest country in the world? Brunei has the magical score of 100. Ecuador comes in at 93 and Dominica at 90. There are some European countries that score in the 80s: Austria 87, Denmark and Malta 84, Germany 83.
USA 64 and Canada 62 score pretty badly in this category.
Australia is fairing middle of the road at 76. Russia comparatively are doing quite well at 71, considering the accusations thrown their way in the past. While there may be some bad stories, there are also some good stories where Russia has made strong decisions to protect the environment. Nothing is black and white in science or politics.

4) Freedom.
Freedom is something we pride ourselves on in the west. In the words of Zach de la Rocha.. "Freedom, yeah right!" How free are we really? Civil liberties in the west are continually under attack. Benjamin Franklin said "Any society that gives up a little liberty to gain a little security, deserves neither and will lose both." But let's count freedom as a pre 9-11 concept, realising that some ridiculous erosions have come in the past ten years and freedom of speech is on the way out....

The most free country in the world?  Well Australia of course!.... along with a bunch of others- 
France, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Belgium, Canada, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Liechtenstein, Malta, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Uruguay, Hungary, Portugal, Lithuania, Andorra, Czech(land), UK (??!!), Slovenia, Sweden, Chile, Estonia, Costa Rica, Poland, Ireland, Slovakia, Greek Cyprus, Iceland, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Barbados, Bahamas, Peurto Rico, Nauru, Kiribati, Palau, Tuvalu, Cape Verde, Marshall Islands, Micronesia.

The US is no longer the land of the free, they have dropped down to 92....

And the countries with a score of 0?
North Korea, Uzbekistan, Libya, Burma, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Somalia.

Other current countries of note:
Egypt 25; Tunisia 17; Yemen 33; Bahrain 33; Saudi Arabia 8; Iran 17.

China has a score of 8.

Wikileaks will fill you in on the rest. The Russian government are big fans of Wikileaks.

5) Health.
So apparently France has the best health care system in the world, with a score of 100. We Australians like to brag about ours, we have a score of 87. Many European countries score in the 80s and 90s. Canada has a score of 84. 
At 71, the Russian health care system scores higher than I though when I first arrived in the country. 

6) Infrastructure. 
America is finally best at something. America has the best infrastructure on the planet with a score of 100. I guess it's true that infrastructure does factor high in our estimation of quality of life in any given country.
Australia scores handsomely with 92. Russia is a long way behind on 48. It's a hard game trying to fully develop a country. There will hopefully come a day when Russia has great roads. Great roads and great railways are the back bone of a strong economy. Russia does have the railways though.

7) Risk and Safety.
A lot of the countries that scored 100 in Freedom also scored 100 for Risk and Safety.
Russia scores 57.

8) Climate.
This is the most subjective of all categories. Do I enjoy perfect beach weather? Absolutely. But I also enjoy great skiing weather, that we have had recently. Sunny, crisp days are great for skiing. But these don't rate highly on the climate scale.
Anyway....
Zimbabwe has the best climate in the world! But that don't make them a very happy country, sadly.
Malta scores 95 (nice and temperate, not too hot, not too cold, that is the place I have been searching for).
Australia scores 87, but how did France equal Australia with 87 also?
Russia scores 64. Don't knock it! Canada score 69. Countries such as United Arab Emirates 10, Oman 8 and Yemen 0, have climates that really bite!

So really Russia's climate is not that bad, what are you waiting for, get over here! 
I prefer a cold Winter's day to a biting sand storm in plus 50 Yemen any day.

9) Cost of living.
Cost of living is certainly a big factor when people consider quality of life. It is very important to qualify what the scores mean though. The score is meant to indicate how much it costs for a local to live the same "quality of life" as in the USA. But if one is content to lower their standards a little, then things can become a lot more affordable pretty quickly. 
My guess is that we live at about 75% of our habitual standard of living in Australia. I am not referring to all of the other categories above. I am referring to things such as clothes, food, leisure, transportation. To date, we have deliberately decided against having a car because the costs are high, and the infrastructure scores a 48!
At 75%, we find our lives to be quite affordable and manageable. Yes, we have given things up that we take for granted in Australia. But, no we haven't given everything up to the point where life would become impossible for us as a family.

What about the scores?
Iraq is the most affordable with a score of 100, and Afghanistan has a score of 88. Looks like it's all paying off!
Of the developed countries in the world Malaysia is the most affordable with a score of 70. Thailand has a score of 68. Canada comes in at 62, Australia and the US at 56.
Don't pack your bags to move to Sweden any time soon, they are the least affordable country in the world with a score of 0.
Ireland has a score of 28, Russia has a score of 29. So, yes it is expensive to live in Russia if you want to have the high standard of living that people have in the west, but if you drop your expectations a few notches it is more affordable than the west in my opinion. It all comes down to expectations. Subjectivity is the order of the day.

These statistical comparisons give some indication of what our lives are like in Russia. We are adapting.

But beware.... there are lies, lies and statistics. :)

Oh, and the final scores?

#1. France 82/100
#2. Australia 81/100
#9. Canada 77/100
#110. Russia 54/100
#194. Somalia 30/100  (last place).