Quote Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen.
Here you can find a list of countries by HDI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...elopment_Index

It's not surprising to see European or European descended nations on top. But the predominance of the Germanic countries is really striking. Of the top ten countries all are Germanic countries, or at least have a Germanic language. On the other hand Britain is only at place 28.
What do you think are the reasons for nations you know scoring better or worse than other nations?