Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in,according to the latest UN index on human development published last Tuesday that again puts AIDS -afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.
Iceland,Norway,Australia,Canada and Ireland dominate the top places but the United States slipping to 12thplace from eighth last year in the UN Human Development Index.
The index ranks 175 UN member countries plus Hong Kong and the Palestinian territories.It does not include 17 countries,including Iraq,Afghanistan and Somalia,because of inadequate data.
Norway had held top spot for six years but was edged into second place by Iceland this year because of newlife expectancy estimates and updated figures for gross domestic product,or GDP,the report said.
The report said most countries had seen their human development index rise over the last 30 years,but in 16 it was lower than in 1990,and in three --the Democratic Republic of Congo,Zambia and Zimbabwe --lowerthan in 1975.