Plan B Forum

Switzerland is the best place to be born in 2013, a new global survey laying bare the 'lottery of life' reveals.

Babies born in the land-locked nation of just 8million are the 'luckiest' in the world according to researchers who also named Nigeria as the worst place to start life. Britain is ranked just 27th, behind the likes of South Korea, Kuwait and Chile, and well down on the 7th place it achieved in a similar survey 25 years ago.

From what today’s newborns can hope to earn in 2030 to how happy a nation is, analysts from the Economist Intelligence Unit crunched the numbers on 11 different factors to decide where the luckiest babies will emerge this year. Switzerland tops the chart, scoring 8.22 out of 10, jumping from 13th place in a similar exercise in 1988.

The league table has been branded ‘deadly serious’ by The Economist magazine, which suggests place of birth will become increasingly important as the world faces an uncertain future. ‘There is surely a lot to be said for boring stability in today’s (and no doubt tomorrow’s) uncertain times,’ the magazine said.

The USA has fallen from the number one spot in 1988 to joint 16th while France, ranked second in 1988, drops to 26th, just ahead of Britain. Australia is second and Norway third, followed by Sweden and Denmark. Singapore, New Zealand, Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong complete the top 10.

The results of opinion polls on how happy people say there have been cross-referenced with hard facts like crime levels, wealth and health, to produce the table

During the latter half of the 20th century, Taiwan has experienced rapid economic growth and industrialization and is now an advanced industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Taiwan evolved into a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage. Taiwan is one of the Four Asian Tigers and a member of the WTO and APEC. The 19th-largest economy in the world, its advanced technology industry plays a key role in the global economy. Taiwan is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development

Singapore is a unitary multiparty parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, and governs on the basis of a strong state and prioritising collective welfare over individual rights such as freedom of speech.

In terms of purchasing power parity, Singapore has the third highest per capita income in the world. There are slightly over 5 million people in Singapore, of which 2.91 million were born locally. The population is highly diverse; the majority are Chinese, with Malays and Indians forming significant minorities. Reflecting this diversity, the country has four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. One of the five founding members of the Association of South East Asian Nations, the country is also the host of the APEC Secretariat, and a member of the East Asia Summit, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Commonwealth.

Gunman kills 3 in Swiss village
January 3 2013 at 06:14pm
By Denis Balibouse

Daillon, Switzerland - A gunman killed three women and wounded two men late on Wednesday in the Swiss village of Daillon, opening fire from his apartment then pursuing the attack in the street, Swiss officials said.