联合国:挪威生活品质称冠全球

Oil-rich Norway remains the best country in the world to live in, while Zimbabwe, afflicted by economic crisis and AIDS, is the least desirable, according to an annual U.N. rating released on Thursday.

The assessment came in a so-called human development index, a measure of well-being published by the U.N. Development Program for the past 20 years that combines individual economic prosperity with education levels and life expectancy.

The UNDP placed Norway, Australia and New Zealand at the top and Niger -- last year's back-marker -- the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe at the bottom, as Western countries again led the list while sub-Saharan African nations trailed.

Japan headed the field in life expectancy, at 83.6 years, with Afghanistan last at little more than half of that -- 44.6 years. The tiny Alpine state of Liechtenstein had by far the highest per capita annual income -- $81,011, 460 times higher than last-placed Zimbabwe on $176.

Overall, the index contained some significant changes near the top compared with last year, with the United States rising to fourth from 13th and Iceland -- hard hit by the global financial crisis -- plummeting to 17th from third.

But UNDP officials said the figures were not fully comparable due to changes in calculation methods this year.

Per capita gross national income, which includes aid and remittances, has been used instead of gross domestic product, while in education literacy levels have been replaced by average years of schooling.

Due to difficulties in obtaining the required figures from some countries, only 169 of the 192 U.N. member states were graded.

联合国本周四发布“人类发展指数”年度排行榜，富产石油的挪威再次稳居榜首，饱受经济危机和艾滋病困扰的津巴布韦排名垫底。

联合国开发计划署发布“人类发展指数”已有20年历史，该指数是综合考虑个人经济状况、教育水平、平均寿命等因素而得出的一项生活品质衡量指标。

在联合国开发计划署公布的该榜单中，挪威、澳大利亚、新西兰名列前三甲，去年垫底的尼日尔、刚果民主共和国和津巴布韦排在最末。西方国家再次领跑榜单，撒哈拉以南非洲国家被甩在后面。

日本以83.6岁的人均寿命在该评比中居首，而排在末位的阿富汗人均寿命仅为44.6岁，刚超过日本的一半。阿尔卑斯山小国列支敦士登目前是全球人均年收入最高的国家，为81011美元，比排名倒数第一、人均年收入仅有176美元的津巴布韦高出460倍。

总体来看，与去年相比，今年榜单上排名靠前的国家有很大变化。美国从第13位上升至第4位，受全球金融危机重创的冰岛从第3位下滑至第17位。

但联合国开发计划署的官员表示，由于计算方法与去年不同，榜单并不完全可比。

今年的计算标准采用了包含援助和汇款的人均国民收入，而舍弃了国内生产总值，教育程度的衡量标准则采用了平均受教育年限，舍弃了识字率。

由于在一些国家收集数据存在难度，联合国192个成员中仅有169个参加了此次调查。

Vocabulary:

back-marker: a competitor who is at the back of a field in a race（被远远甩在后面的比赛选手。赛车比赛中，指“被套圈车手”，也就是被超过一圈以上的车手。）