Australia ranked ‘best place to live’

Australia has recently been ranked the best country to live in for the third year running by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Better Life Index.

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Index, which takes into account 11 topics to come with its findings – community, education, environment, civic engagement, health, housing, income, jobs, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance – rated Australia particularly highly in the health, housing and public engagement sectors.

At 82, Australia’s life expectancy is two years higher than the OECD average, while 90 per cent of Aussies say they are happy with their housing situation – the Index’s average is 87 per cent. What’s more, largely thanks to the fact Australia enforces compulsory voting, public engagement in the country was found to be far higher than in most other developed nations.

The only factor that Australia did not score particularly highly in was income, although even in that category Australia’s average annual household income was found to be above the OECD average.

Sweden was ranked second of the 36 countries covered by the Index, followed by Canada, Norway, Switzerland, the United States, Denmark, Netherlands, Iceland and the UK. New Zealand finished just one place outside the top ten.

Perhaps surprisingly, Germany and France finished someway outside the top ten positions – in 17th and 18th place respectively – while less surprisingly, many of the countries affected by the eurozone financial crisis also fared poorly. Spain was ranked in 20th place, Italy in 23rd Portugal in 28th and Greece in 30th.

The bottom ranked country was Turkey, which scored poorly in all factors aside from safety and civic engagement.

To find out how you can make a new life for yourself in the world’s most liveable country, download our FREE Australia and New Zealand guide.