瑞士獲評年最佳出生地大綱

Switzerland is the best place to be born in the world in 2013, and the US is just 16th.

A new study produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit says American babies will have a dimmer future than those born in Hong Kong, Ireland and even Canada.

The EIU, a sister company of The Economist, attempted to measure how well countries will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in years to come.

People born in Switzerland will tend to be the happiest and have the best quality of life judged in terms of wealth, health and trust in public institutions, according to the analysis.

The Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark also all make the top five in a 'quality-of-life' index highlighting where it is best to be born next year.

In 1988, the US came top of a rank of 50 countries, though has not achieved the top spot since.

The index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys - how happy people say they are - to objective determinants of quality of life across countries.

One of the most important factors is being rich, but other factors come into play - including crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life.

In total, the index takes into account 11 indicators.

These include fixed factors such as geography, others that change slowly over time such as demography, social and cultural characteristics, and the state of the world economy.

The index also looks at income per head in 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.

Small economies dominate the top 10 countries, with Australia coming second and New Zealand and the Netherlands not too far behind.

Half of the top 10 countries are European, but only one, the Netherlands, is from the euro-zone.

The crisis-ridden south of Europe, including Greece, Portugal and Spain, lags behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate.

Interestingly, the largest European economies - Germany, France and Britain - do not do particularly well.

Nigeria has the unenviable title of being the worst country for a baby to enter the world in 2013.瑞士是2013年世界上的最佳出生地，而美國只排在第16位。

經濟學人智庫發佈的一項新研究稱，美國孩子的未來比香港、愛爾蘭甚至加拿大出生的孩子更渺茫。

經濟學人智庫是《經濟學人》的姐妹公司，該公司試圖估算出一個國家或地區能否在未來數年內提供讓人們過上健康、安全、富裕生活的最好機會。

根據該公司的分析結果，從人們的財富、健康和對公共機構的信任度來衡量，一般來說在瑞士出生的人是最幸福的，生活質量也最高。

依據“生活質量”這一指標評出的明年最佳出生地中，挪威、瑞典和丹麥這幾個斯堪的納維亞國家也躋身前五名。

1988年，美國曾在評出的50個最佳出生地中排名居首，但自那以後再也沒有獲得過第一。

該研究的指標將對主觀生活滿意度的調查結果（即人們自稱有多幸福）和各國生活質量的客觀決定因素結合起來。

其中最重要的一個因素是富裕，但其他因素——包括犯罪率、對公共機構的信任度以及家庭生活的健康——也有影響。

總體來說，該指標以11項指數爲基礎。

其中包括一些不可變因素，比如地理位置，還有一些變化緩慢的因素，如人口、社會文化特徵和世界經濟狀況等。

該指標還預測了2030年的人均收入，到那時2013年出生的孩子基本都會步入成年。

排在前十名的出生地大多是小型經濟體，澳大利亞排名第二，新西蘭和荷蘭也名列前茅。

前十名的國家有一半是歐洲國家，但其中只有荷蘭是來自歐元區。

歐洲南部的一些危機重重的國家，包括希臘、葡萄牙和西班牙，儘管氣候條件很有利，但排名卻很靠後。

有趣的是，最大的幾個歐洲經濟體——德國、法國和英國——在這一排行中表現並不佳。

尼日利亞摘得了無人羨慕的頭銜，成爲2013年嬰兒的最差出生地。