Babies born in Singapore now will be among the luckiest in the world, according to the Economist magazine. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) did a survey to find out which country will be the best for a baby born in 2013. And it found Switzerland will be best, followed by Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore.
The survey tries to find out which countries will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.
The Economist adds: “We use the EIU’s economic forecasts to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.”
The article originally appeared in The Economist in November 2012. But for some reason the findings were posted again in a chart on the Economist website yesterday, maybe to mark New Year’s Day.
New Zealand is seventh, Canada ninth, America 16th and Britain 27th on the list, Malaysia is 36th, China 49th and India 66th.
Singapore officially, of course, wants more babies. As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his New Year message: “We have to find effective ways to encourage Singaporeans to have more babies,” It’s just that Singapore couples are not quite as keen. Singapore’s total fertility rate – the number of children a woman is expected to have – is 1.2: one of the lowest in the world. The figure is from the 2012 Population Trends issued by the Department of Statistics, Singapore.
