Britain and Australia top places to die

On July 20, respected international news publication The Economist tweeted about its "attempt to rank end-of-life care in different countries" that linked to a graph showing the best nations to die in. Here is a look at ‘where' the best and worst places are for being born, living well and dying.

The Lien Foundation, a charity "commissioned by the Economist Intelligence Unit," created a ranking of end-of-life care "The Good Death Guide" published on July 14.

For the report, 182 countries were ranked to create a quality of death index with points "awarded for long life expectancy, hospice availability and access to painkillers" with data sourced from UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and Economist Intelligence Unit.

Britain tops the list based on ‘honest' care and painkillers aplenty, with Australia a close second. The BRIC nations emerged as the places you do not want to find yourself at end-of-life. Russia, China, Brazil and India (in that order) ranked poorly based on ‘cultural factors' including taboos and poor care for 'dignity in death.'

In March 2010 the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) ranked child mortality of under 5-year-olds, showing Singapore and Iceland are the best places to be born followed by Sweden, Cyprus and Luxembourg. A Swedish child is 60 times more likely to celebrate his or her fifth birthday than children born in Nigeria, Chad or Mali.

For life satisfaction, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Canada top the Happy Planet Index (HPI) with Togo and the Congo being the worst places. The index measures nations by happiness, analyzing life expectancy, life satisfaction and ecological footprint.

Vienna, Austria takes first place for the world's best quality of living, followed by Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland, Vancouver, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand, according to the Mercer 2010 Quality of Living Survey. The survey looks at 10 categories including "Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc)". The absolute worst place to live is Baghdad, Iraq with Bangui, Central African Republic and Dhaka, Bangladesh not far behind.