Method
The survey uses nine quality of life factors to determine a nation's score. They are listed below including the indicators used to represent these factors:
- Healthiness: Life expectancy at birth (in years). Source: US Census Bureau
- Family life: Divorce rate (per 1,000 population), converted into index of 1 (lowest divorce rates) to 5 (highest). Sources: UN; Euromonitor
- Community life: Variable taking value 1 if country has either high rate of church attendance or trade-union membership; zero otherwise. Source: World Values Survey
- Material well being: GDP per person, at PPP in $. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
- Political stability and security: Political stability and security ratings. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
- Climate and geography: Latitude, to distinguish between warmer and colder climates. Source: CIA World Factbook
- Job security: Unemployment rate (%.) Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
- Political freedom: Average of indexes of political and civil liberties. Scale of 1 (completely free) to 7 (unfree). Source: Freedom House
- Gender equality: Measured using ratio of average male and female earnings. Source: UNDP Human Development Report
Read more about this topic: Quality-of-life Index
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