Every so often the U.N. publishes a report on the "Best Countries to Live In". The ranking is based upon a Human Development Index and (surprise!) the HDI is based upon Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting). Standard of living, as measured by the natural logarithm of gross domestic product per capita. The latest report was released in December, 2008 and has these rankings Check out these articles: L.A. Times National Geographic a video a BBC ranking a discussion forum google ... of course.

Rank Country 1 Iceland 2 Norway 3 Canada 4 Australia 5 Ireland 6 Netherlands 7 Sweden 8 Japan 9 Luxembourg 10 Switzerland 11 France 12 Finland 13 Denmark 14 Austria 15 U.S.A. 16 Spain 17 Belgium 18 Greece 19 Italy 20 New Zealand 21 U.K. 22 Hong Kong 23 Germany 24 Israel 25 S. Korea 26 Slovenia 27 Brunei 28 Singapore 29 Cyprus 30 Kuwait