Slovakia is a country with a very high level of human development, states the Human Development Report 2010 presented at the Bratislava Regional Centre of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 15, the TASR newswire reported.
Listed among countries with only a high development last year and moving up from last year's 42nd spot, Slovakia is now ranked 31st in the table evaluating the quality of life, closely behind the Czech Republic and Slovenia. First place was taken by Norway, while Hungary and Poland were ranked 36th and 41st, respectively. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were ranked at the very bottom of the table.
The report, which states that there is no automatic link between economic growth and human development, divided 169 countries into four categories (very high level, high level, medium and low level of human development). The very high level group also features countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The countries judged to have the worst quality of life were Mozambique, Burundi, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.
The Human Development Report is an independent UNDP publication, first published in 1990, that provides an overview of some of the most difficult issues faced by humanity. The evaluation is based on the so-called human development index, which combines not only economic but also social parameters such as average life expectancy, access to education, equality of the sexes, access to drinking water, healthcare, and others.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
