We can deduce that quality of living are better in the USA, UK, New Zealand and the Czech Republic as these are the 4 countries with the highest National income per capita and the ones that seem like reasonable places to live. The USA is, according to the GNI per capita statistics, the country with the best living conditions with $43740, however, this is not necessarily accurate as the US has no free health care system and high crime rates among other faults which makes the worlds largest economy weak compared to the UK and New Zealand where the GNI may not be as high as America’s but people have longer life expectancy, less crime and free health care...
China, which is by far the most populated country in the list, and in the world, has the GNI per capita $1740, which is pretty pathetic. China is an up and coming country economically, however there are serious issues that need to be addressed before you can call the giant a reasonable place to live and be treated like an equal. It is very difficult to compare Tanzania, Kenya, and Pakistan to the other nations simply for the lack of products and capital in these countries. Even though there might be raw goods in the countries with great possibility, these countries are run by corrupt governments where the lack of capital makes it difficult for growth to be a reality. This makes it obvious that the standard of living in these countries is terribly bad.
The four top countries in the list have a percentage that is next to nothing concerning adult illiteracy rate, this is a factor that shows us if a country has a population that reflects the living standard offered. On the bottom of his list is Pakistan where 50% of its adult population cannot pick up a book to save their lives. This might be because of the laws that make it illegal for women to attend school, pardon me if I am wrong. Pakistan is followed by Tanzania with 31% of its population unable to read, and closely followed by Kenya, where they run marathons like non, but still has 26% of its population which is unable to read.
Another factor that definitively affect living standards is infrastructure. The UK and Czech Republic lead the charts with an astonishing 100% of its roads paved. I feel ashamed to have to compare this figure to Tanzania’s 8.4% paved roads. It is shameful to live in a country with such a gap between the rich and poor nations.
The figures show the same trend when you compare Internet users in New Zealand having 671.9 people per 1000 to Tanzania’s 1.2 per 1000. This shows us the difference in these countries that were once known as first and third world countries.
Even though those statistics show a great amount about a country’s living conditions, there are no other factors which show a country’s real standard of living as life expectancy, mortality rate, malnutrition, access to sanitation and very important access to safe water. The top four countries have life expectancies above 75 years, nearly 80 in New Zealand’s case (Ms Partridge would be proud). I must sound very repetitive, but Tanzania again shows the lowest age in the statistic, 46. Under-five mortality rate in the top 4 is maximum 7 per 1000 where in the bottom two countries 122 children of a 1000 is expected to die. Access to safe water is also 100% in the top 4, and even Russia’s number is massive compared to the other countries. I have no idea how the rest of the world sleeps at night knowing the less than 60% of a country has access to safe water. The limitation of using GNI, as a measure for living standards is the GNI does not take into account the political situation of the country, it does not take into account if the country has free health care, it does not take into account child mortality rate and other factors, which makes living standard increase. China for example has a GDP, which is pretty massive compared to the rest of the world. This being said, China also has the largest population, a communist regime, massive poverty, sanitary issues and so on.. Colombia has pretty bad statistics in comparison to the so known MEDCs. The country today is in such a state where the government is almost under control of drug cartels and enriched drug lords. The USA, having the worlds largest GDP and GNI is still stupid enough not to have a free health care system, which shows weakness in the use of GNI as a measure of standard of living. It is safe to say that GNI is not the only measure of the best living standard, as the country wit the highest standard of living is New Zealand and GNI shows America on top. Even though there are other measurements to be taken into account, GNI per capita is a very important one to take into account as it shows how much people have available to spend to improve their lives.

Bibliography:

Economics Fifth Edition A Level, Alain Anderson, Edexcel, 2008