Ghana 14th best places to live in Africa - U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, June 12 (Reuters) - Ghana is the 14th best place to live in Africa according to the 1999 U.N. Human Development Report, released on Monday.

Ghana is still way behind at 131, but a big improvemnet from it's 161 position in the 80s.

Canada, for the sixth consecutive year, ranks first among best places to live, while Norway treats women better than any other country.
This year's survey, like its predecessors, ranks 174 nations according to how people live, factoring in health care, life expectancy, education and income.
In the overall index, Norway is in second place, followed by the United States, Japan, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, the Netherlands, Iceland, Britain, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Italy and Ireland.
At the other end of the scale, the 10 least developed countries in human terms are, from the bottom up, Sierra Leone, Niger, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Mali and the Central African Republic.
Canada has used the report each year to broadcast its achievements. ``We, as Canadians, should be very proud, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said. Together, we have built a country which is the envy of the world -- a country founded on tolerance, cooperation and inclusion.''
But another index showed a widespread discrepancy between the sexes, with inequality existing in all countries.
Canada slips to fourth place on this list, and the United States is in eighth place on the ``gender empowerment'' index. This measures how many women are in parliament or government, how many have professional or technical jobs, and how much they earn, based on per capita income.
The 20 top countries here are Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Finland, Iceland, the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Austria, the Bahamas, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Britain, Belgium, Portugal, South Africa and Ireland.
The survey shows that high income is not always a necessary condition for creating opportunities for women. South Africa and Costa Rica, for example, outrank France, which is in 36th place. Israel in 37th place outperforms Japan in 38th place.
The Bahamas, the Czech Republic and Slovenia also offer better conditions for women than their income would suggest, illustrating that equality ``can be achieved across a range of cultures,'' the report said.
Despite major improvements in life expectancy and literacy among men and women over the past decade, poverty is pervasive in Benin, Nepal and Niger, among others.
Pockets of deprivation also exist within rich nations. For example, Denmark's average life expectancy is 76 years, but 13 percent of the population does not reach the age of 60.
In Ireland, 23 percent of the people are functionally illiterate, and in the United States, nearly 20 percent of the population has an income below the national poverty line.
Britain, Ireland and the United States show higher poverty levels than other industrialised countries.
The report said 16 countries suffered major reversals in health care, largely because of the impact of AIDS in southern and eastern Africa and economic stagnation in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
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Following is a full list the Human Development Index based on income, life expectancy and educational attainment:
1. Canada 2. Norway 3. United States 4. Japan 5. Belgium 6. Sweden 7. Australia 8. Netherlands 9. Iceland 10. Britain 11. France 12. Switzerland 13. Finland 14. Germany 15. Denmark 16 Austria 17. Luxembourg 18. New Zealand 19. Italy 20. Ireland 21. Spain 22. Singapore 23. Israel 24. Hong Kong 25. Brunei 26. Cyprus 27. Greece 28. Portugal 29. Barbados 30. South Korea 31. Bahamas 32. Malta 33. Slovenia 34. Chile 35. Kuwait 36. Czech Republic 37. Bahrain 38. Antigua 39. Argentina 40. Uruguay 41. Qatar 42. Slovakia 43. United Arab Emirates 44. Poland 45. Costa Rica
46. Trinidad and Tobago 47. Hungary 48. Venezuela 49. Panama 50. Mexico 51. Saint Kitts and Nevis 52. Grenada 53. Dominica 54. Estonia 55. Croatia 56. Malaysia 57. Colombia 58. Cuba 59. Mauritius 60. Belarus 61. Fiji 62. Lithuania 63. Bulgaria 64. Surinam 65. Libya 66. Seychelles 67. Thailand 68. Romania 69. Lebanon 70. Western Samoa 71. Russia 72. Ecuador 73. Macedonia 74. Latvia 75. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 76. Kazakhstan 77. Philippines 78. Saudi Arabia 79. Brazil 80. Peru 81. Saint Lucia 82. Jamaica 83. Belize 84. Paraguay 85. Georgia 86. Turkey 87. Armenia 88. Dominican Republic 89. Oman 90. Sri Lanka 91. Ukraine 92. Uzbekistan 93. Maldives 94. Jordan 95. Iran 96. Turkmenistan 97. Kyrgyzstan Republic 98. China 99. Guyana
100. Albania 101. South Africa 102. Tunisia 103. Azerbaijan 104. Moldova 105. Indonesia 106. Cape Verde 107. El Salvador 108. Tajikistan 109. Algeria 110. Vietnam 111. Syria 112. Bolivia 113. Swaziland 114. Honduras 115. Namibia 116. Vanuatu 117. Guatemala 118. Solomon Islands 119. Mongolia 120. Egypt 121. Nicaragua 122. Botswana 123. Sao Tome and Principe 124. Gabon 125. Iraq 126. Morocco 127. Lesotho 128. Myanmar 129. Papua New Guinea 130. Zimbabwe 131. Equatorial Guinea 132. India 133. Ghana 134. Cameroon 135. Congo 136. Kenya 137. Cambodia 138. Pakistan 139. Comoros 140. Laos 141. Democratic Republic of Congo 142. Sudan
143. Togo 144. Nepal 145. Bhutan 146. Nigeria 147. Madagascar 148. Yemen 149. Mauritania 150. Bangladesh 151. Zambia 152. Haiti 153. Senegal 154. Ivory Coast 155. Benin 156. Tanzania 157. Djibouti 158. Uganda 159. Malawi 160. Angola 161. Guinea 162. Chad 163. Gambia 164. Rwanda 165. Central African Republic 166. Mali 167. Eritrea 168. Guinea-Bissau 169. Mozambique 170. Burundi 171. Burkina Faso 172. Ethiopia 173. Niger 174. Sierra Leone.