Saturday, September 8, 2007

World in Figures - a Quick Snapshot

Just learnt today that according to the Economist's Pocket World in Figures 2008:-

1) Norwegians enjoy the world's best quality of life, followed by Icelanders and Australians; (hey, that’s pretty cool ! the Vikings have it good…:P )

2) Greeks smoke the most cigarettes, Japan reads the most newspapers and Ecuador has the most murders per head of population, 18.3 murders per 100,000 inhabitants;

3) Japan also has the world's largest proportion of elderly people with 26 per cent of its population over 60;

4) while tiny European country Luxembourg has the highest GDP per capita (pretty cool for a small country! Been here before..nice little place but thats all I could remember though..);

5) The United States has by far the biggest prison population with 2.2 million behind bars (no wonder they can come up with such excellent plot for the `Prison Break’ series :P);

6) while China carries out by the far the most executions — 3,400 in 2004 (! Oh dear! ) ..

My oh my.. Certainly some of these figures would raise eyebrows!
Does make me wonder.. where exactly would be the best place to live in this world?

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