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France (shown above, burning) has the greatest quality of life in the world.
International Living has released their Quality of Life Index 2007, and Slovenia totally got the shaft. The little Alpine wonderland came in 32nd place, well behind all of its immediate neighbors. France, in the meantime, was crowned number one.
I can’t say I have too much confidence in those results, and not just because France won. For one thing, their 2007 rankings include Yugoslavia — a country that officially stopped existing four years ago…
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In other words, these guys aren’t too serious. Their Slovenia section certainly doesn’t make you think otherwise. They’ve got two fluff stories, one of which opens up with the nonsensical statement: “Ljubljana, the tiny capital of the even tinier independent state of Slovenia.” (Wait, what? So Slovenia is smaller than Ljubljana?)
And when you look at Slovenia’s scores in the survey, you’ll also notice something odd. Obviously stuff like this can never be an exact science. But a lot of their scores are just absolutely absurd. For the category climate, they give top marks to Zimbabwe, Malta, and South Africa. So, obviously, warm places are getting the most points. Fine. But why are landlocked Austria and Hungary ahead of Slovenia? Slovenia has a nice little strip of coast, and nice weather because of this. How does Austria score higher?
Even worse is the category for infrastructure. This was Slovenia’s worst category, by the way, with only 40 points out of 100, which is crazy. Slovenia has brand-spanking-new highways traversing the country and a booming airport, and yet it still finished behind Bosnia, Gambia, and Bangladesh(!) Not to mention Croatia, whose infrastructure is considered better than Austria’s. (??)
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All in all, Croatia did extremely well. It finished in 16th place in the quality of living survey — so, ahead of places like Canada, Sweden, and the U.K., and International Living lists it as one of 15 countries that constitute the “world’s top havens.” I know that Croatia is beautiful, but their spectacular results seemed suspicious to me.
Sure enough: Just digging through the site revealed that the editor and the publisher bought property in Croatia. Their experiences, humorously enough, seem to be nothing short of chaotic — they aren’t even sure what they bought, don’t have direct access to a road, and seem to be entirely reliant on locals for everything — but they still croon about the cheap value. It’s clearly an investment they’re excited about. And, of course, I don’t think it hurts them that their publication trumpets Croatia as having a world-class standard of living…
By the way, you’ll never guess where they live otherwise. I’ll give you a hint: It’s the winner of their survey to find the greatest quality of life in the world: France! What a coincidence, no?
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Well that’s unbiased journalism for ya!! ;P
Sorry for the double post but…I thought this comment below was too good to pass up.
I guess it was the unemployment, riots, and burning of cars in some cities that pushed France to the top!!
Michael your right, thats a crazy list and we know “the crows” are known to slip a few euros into the judges pockets. how the hell did all those ex-russian states do so well and Mexico please!!!!! the highways are the best going around! the U.s scores 92 for freedom hahah,
What a hoot! Keep your secret to yourself, Michael. As for the IL editors, they can have France all to themselves as far as I’m concerned!
What a joke… And I second what Kevin said… Let them keep France… and Croatia for that matter…
check this
two hits in the first row
(I prefer the last one in the first row…)
France got a 100 at “risk&safety”?? That alone combined with a picture in your post make this Index look like a joke.
Not to mention other details already discussed. 
Sweden worse than Croatia?!
I think everyone can release their personal index, it should just be named properly!
Slovenia with infastructure of 40 is one thing, but Canada with 51 ?! Are they basing that on the amount of infastructure per square KM or something? What if those square KM aren’t inhabited, eh? Eh? Sheesh.
Based on the low scores for Norway and Sweden in infastructure (51 + 52) I expect that that’s what they are doing - anyone with an expanse of uninhabited land it getting screwed over.
O.K. I would agree with the rank of France…the result is most probably in the index of birth which is I think the highest in EU…unfortunately Slovenia has the worst one… better living standard - more kids, ha, ha… I just remember a joke from times I had served Army: Slovene Janez said to Mujo from Bosnia “I have better life than you: good car, superb house, the widest screen TV”, and Mujo replied: “but I have my Fata in evening, no needs for your ‘better’ life…”
Newsflash! Hard hitting journalist Michael Manske exposes an international real-estate pump & dump fraud! News at 11.
Seriously, nice job.
Well I think I’d like Croatia better than Sweden, but that’s because I HATE cold weather and don’t speak Swedish. I’m sure Sweden is a lovely place. So did BiH come off badly in there too? LOL at Boštjan! always nice to have another Mujo and Fata joke!
Sorry for the double post. Mexico TOTALAMENTE does NOT belong on that list! Mexico is only safe if you know what you are doing at this point, because they are politically unstable, there is a high crime rate, and the infrastructure isn’t so wonderful except in special enclaves for the use of foreigners, ie, gated communities.
@Ange - why do you think it’s uninhabited? Nobody wants to live there if there’s no infrastructure.
All of those best of lists are biased. they are fantasic creations made by the tourist agencies that want to promote their countries.
In some lists vancouver is rated as #1 place in the world. i lived there, and its not even close. my good god its not.
Michael good post, i wouldnt take those phony ratings seriously either.