BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 11TH 2006 (CUOPM)
St. Kitts & Nevis remains the highest-ranking country in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report.
The twin-island Federation is listed at number 51 among 177 countries of the world in the Report released by the United Nations.Barbados, which leads the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, retains the top Caribbean and Latin America ranking at number 31, followed by Cuba at 50 and St. Kitts and Nevis at 51. Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda are the only four CARICOM states in the top 63 High Human Development Index.
Cuba is ranked at 50, The Bahamas is ranked at 52, Trinidad and Tobago at 57 and Antigua and Barbuda at 59.
In the CARICOM Community, Dominica is ranked 68 and heads the Medium Human Development group. St. Lucia is ranked 71. Grenada is at 85; St. Vincent and the Grenadines is at 88; Belize, 95; Guyana is ranked, 103 and Jamaica, 104.
In other Latin America rankings, Argentina is 36; Chile is at 38; Uruguay, 43; Costa Rica, 48; Mexico, 53; Panama 58 and Venezuela at 72.
In the 2006 Report, Norway retained its No. 1 ranking and remains the best country in the world to live. Iceland is ranked No. 2; Australia remains at No. 3; Luxembourg ranked No. 4 last year has dropped to 12; Canada is ranked at No. 6, compared to No. 5 last year; Sweden is ranked No. 5; Japan, No.7 and the United States, No. 8.
The UN Human Development Report measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development, namely a long and healthy life measured by life expectancy at birth, knowledge as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrolment for primary, secondary and tertiary level educational institutions, and decent standard of living, measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) US dollars.