CAIRO: The American weekly magazine Newsweek issued an indication of the international classification of countries across the globe in terms of quality of life and overall standard of living. Egypt was listed as the 74th country in terms of standards of living. The magazine adopted five criteria for the classification of countries such as quality of education, quality of life, health status of citizens, economic conditions and political freedoms. Finland topped the list in terms of providing all the elements of a comfortable life for its residents and Burkina Faso came in last, while the United States was ranked 11. In the region, Kuwait was ranked 40, while Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel also came in ahead of Egypt on the list, while Algeria was ranked 85. For the status of education, the indicator showed that the proportion of those who are able to read and write in Egypt reached 71.7 percent, and that the average number of years spent by the Egyptian citizen, in schools and universities was approximately 12 years, compared with 15.6 years in Israel. Jordan led all Arab countries in the field of education, the magazine reported. The health indicator has calculated on the average age of the Egyptian citizen, which the magazine estimated at 60 years, according to WHO data, compared with 73 years in Israel, an indicator the magazine said reflects the efficiency of health care programs and the number of doctors and nurses, in addition to the number and efficiency of hospitals. The quality of life index employed several criteria: income difference between women and men, which was estimated at 32.2 percent, according to data from the United Nations Programme for Development, the number zero represents the highest degree of equality, and the number 100 the greatest degree of discrimination. The index of quality of life for gender equality and the proportion of the population who live on less than two dollars a day, a ratio that was estimated at 18.4 percent in Egypt, according to World Bank data, while it amounts to only 1.99 percent of Israel. The annual number of murders per hundred thousand people as one of the important indicators of quality and safety of life, and Egypt recorded 1.2 deaths per hundred thousand people per year, while this figure was 6 people in America, and 4.7 in Israel. The rate of unemployment was one of the criteria also used to measure the efficiency of life and in Egypt amounted to 9.7 percent. The economic indicator included standards of economic growth and the size of the service sector and industrial sector of the overall size of the economy, where the percentage of the service sector was around 49 percent of the total Egyptian economy, and industry at 10.1 percent. While the Political index included three criteria, the first indicator via Freedom House for freedoms, Egypt received 5.5 points. A score of 7 represents a phase of the absence of political freedoms fully, including electoral processes, the efficiency of government and freedom of speech, press and association and the rule of law and respect for freedoms individual. The second criterion reflects the political participation and is located between zero and 10 degrees and Egypt scored 4.4, according to a standard unit of information from The Economist Magazine. Finally, the criterion of political stability, which was measured according to the index of political risk governments, companies and individuals are exposed to, Egypt scored 59 per 100, where the stability increases when the state obtains a higher rate. BM
