Hereunder is an excerpt from the famous yearly ranking done by International Living. An interesting outlook at what criteria make our life enjoyable in a particular country. Do visit the website for the rest of the Top ten countries listed down by IL.
By the Staff of International Living
Every January, we rank and rate 194 countries to come up with our list of the places that offer you the best quality of life. This isn't about best value, necessarily. It's about the places in the world where the living is, simply put, great.
Learn more about the best places in the world to live and get a free report on the World's Best Places to Live Overseas. Simply enter your email below to subscribe to International Living's free daily e-letter and we'll immediately send your free report.
To produce this annual Index we consider nine categories: Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk, and Climate. This involves a lot of number crunching from "official" sources, including government websites, the World Health Organization, and The Economist, to name but a few. We also take into account what our editors from all over the world have to say about our findings.
Below are the countries that win our top 10 in this year's Quality of Life Index and the final scores for each country in every category.
1. France
For the fifth year running, France takes first in our annual Quality of Life Index. No surprise. Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world's best health care.
France always nets high scores in most categories. But you don't need number-crunchers to tell you its bon vivant lifestyle is special. Step off a plane and you'll experience it first-hand.
I always wish quality of life indicators could measure a country's heart and soul. But it's impossible to enumerate the joy of lingering for hours over dinner and a bottle of red wine in a Parisian brasserie. Or strolling beside the Seine on a spring morning, poking through the book vendors' wares. Or buying buttery croissants in bohemian Montmartre...hearing Notre Dame's bells...walking antique streets paved with poetry.
Romantic Paris offers the best of everything, but services don't fall away in Alsace's wine villages...in wild and lovely Corsica...in lavender-scented Provence. Or in the Languedoc of the troubadors, bathed in Mediterranean sunlight.
Provincial French properties are often keenly priced and lifestyles are less expensive than Paris. The Southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region is a particularly good hunting ground for village homes for less than $100,000—and classic three-course lunches for $14. Houses cascade with wisteria blossom; outdoor markets are everywhere. Foie gras, pink garlic, Armagnac, and crystallized violets aren't gourmet fare for locals. Rather, just another day's shopping.
http://www.internationalliving.com/Internal-Components/Further-Resources...
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Interesting, but of course this cannot go uncommented...
1) It is worth to note, that France in this particular survey is only ONE point ahead of Germany:) And...
2) It seems to be a matter of picking the most suitable data to produce desired results. Other surveys (albeit with a slighlty different focus), the Global Happy Index for example (certainly worth checking out!), would put Germany several points ahead of France,both, however, way behind some so-called "developing" countries. Contrary, the Human Development Index would rank France 8 and Germany 22. It simply goes to show, that often the real objective value of such rankings is meager.