South Africa the least healthy country in the world, according to index
Low life expectancy, high alcohol use, and prevalent depression and diabetes are behind SA's coming last.
The Indigo Global Wellness Index, a new study published by an investment firm called LetterOne, has placed South Africa last on a list of which countries are healthiest and happiest. One-hundred-and-fifty-one countries were part of the study.
The index looks at ten metrics in a bid to work out which countries in the world are the most – and least – healthy.
These are blood pressure, blood glucose, obesity, depression, happiness, alcohol use, tobacco use, exercise, healthy life expectancy, and government spending on healthcare.
South Africa managed to rank lower than those countries placed at the bottom of the index – Ukraine, Egypt, and Iraq.
Canada came first, followed by Oman, Iceland, Philippines, Maldives, Netherlands, Singapore, Laos, South Korea, and Cambodia.
“The very poor scores for countries like South Africa – an economy lauded for its growth rate in the 2000s – shows that simply ranking an economy based on traditional economic metrics like GDP can miss important parts of the story,” wrote Richard Davies, the economist who compiled the list.
“A striking observation is the finding that while rich countries tend to lead the Index, there are many emerging economies that are doing better than advanced nations,” Davies writes elsewhere. The US was ranked at number 37, while powerful nations such as Japan, Germany, France, and Italy failed to make the top 25.
“This reflects the huge increases in life expectancy in these countries in recent years, and the poor scores for depression and obesity that advanced countries like the United States receive,” the study says.
A trend that seems to indicate that smaller countries are healthier and happier was also evident.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)
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