London: Planning to immigrate to Britain for prosperity? Give a second thought. Britain may have the fifth biggest economy in the world but it is ranked only 17th for quality of life.
The research, based on the United Nations' Human Development Index, is revealed in The Economist's 'Pocket World in Figures 2008'.
According to the study that compares the economies of 183 countries, Norway is the best place to live followed by Iceland and Australia.
But, in the human development index, Britain shares only 17th position with Italy, one place behind France. Britain does not even make the top 40 in the list of hospital beds per 1,000 people, the research revealed.
Further, with 78.7 vehicles for every km of road, Britain has the 15th most crowded roads. The study also shows that Britain is one of the world leaders in crime figures. It has 9,767 recorded crimes per 100,000 population, behind New Zealand's 11,152 and Finland's 10,243.
The European nation is also one of the world leaders in house prices, up 196 per cent in the decade to 2006 to become the third highest on the planet.
But, despite the house prices rocketing, the country's inflation rate lags behind South Africa (351 per cent) and Ireland (253 per cent).
The surprising finds this year are that there are two countries where house prices have gone up by more than us over the past decade; and that we spend the most per head on music.
In other categories we are not as badly off as people think. Despite concerns over binge drinking, we are not, per head, among the world's biggest beer-drinking nations," Stephen Brough, the Editor of the book, told The Daily Telegraph in London.
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