Malaysia 36th in quality of life index

From The Star
23 April 2005

NEW YORK: Malaysia has gone up 15 positions from last year to rank
36th in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality of life index for
this year.

With a gross domestic product per person (at purchasing power parity)
of US$10,450 (RM39,710), Malaysia is now sixth among Asian countries.

Singapore is in 11th place followed by Japan (17th), Hong Kong (18th),
Taiwan (21st) and South Korea (30th), among the 111 countries that
were ranked.

To determine quality of life, there were nine factors taken into
consideration. They included material well-being, health, which
considers life expectancy, political stability and security, and
family life, which covers divorce rate.

The other determinants were community life, climate and geography, job
security, political freedom and gender equality.

Ireland leads the ranking, moving up from fourth last year to top
spot, while the United States dropped two places to 13th. Zimbabwe is
at the bottom rung.