UNITED NATIONS, October 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has been ranked 71st in the world for living standards, three spots below Belarus, according to a United Nations report released on Monday.
The United Nations Development Program's annual Human Development Report analyzes the standard of living, health, educational level and cultural development of the inhabitants of 182 countries and territories, giving each country a numerical value based on a number of factors including life expectancy, gross national product per capita and literacy. More abstract concepts, such as level of freedom, human rights and social participation are also considered.
The top five are Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada and Ireland, while Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia lead the former Soviet republics in 40th, 46th and 48th place, followed by Belarus at number 68.
Russia is followed by Kazakhstan in 82nd place, quickly followed by Armenia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan at 84-86. Georgia comes in at number 89, with Moldova at 117 along with the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan (109), Uzbekistan (119), Kyrgyzstan (120) and Tajikistan (127).
Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Niger were bottom of the 182 countries ranked in the report, which did not include either Iraq or North Korea.
