What’s the best country to live in?

Discover the shortcomings of using GDP to measure a country’s well-being, and what alternatives can be used to gauge quality of life.

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What’s the best country to live in? Is it the one with the best food? The longest life expectancy? The best weather? For the past 70 years, most governments have relied heavily on a single number: the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. But it was never intended for its current purpose; and some argue that we are addicted to making it grow. Explore the different ways countries measure quality of life.

Directed by Xenia Galchin, AIM Creative Studios.

This video made possible in collaboration with World Economic Forum

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Phyllis Dubrow, Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Lyn-z Schulte, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch, Tejas Dc, Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Dan Paterniti, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Elnathan Joshua Bangayan, Jayant Sahewal, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Kris Siverhus, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann - they-them, Siamak H, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater and Sandra Tersluisen.

[ohluijk]

Me, before watching the video :
"What's the best country to live in ? "
Also me, after watching the video:
"What's the best country to live in? "

[sanityzetpe]

Something i love about TED-Ed videos is that while many people answer questions with direct facts and all, a lot of the "answers" given by these videos often makes us think more about what are we asking and how we can come up with an answer for ourselves, i like this, i feel it helps me develop a better critical way of thinking, and also in ery easy to digest format that doesn't hurt my brain but neither doubts my inteligence to understand a wild varety of topics

[PershingOfficial]

Why does there need to be a “best country.” The world should be working together to make earth a better place. We have so many pointless conflicts from people with big egos and a lust for power

[micahbush]

My measurement for the best place to live would probably depend heavily on stress levels. Do people generally enjoy their work? Are they confident that they could access quality medical care in a health emergency? Are they optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Do they have friends and/or family whom they could turn to during a difficult time? Do they feel that people outside their inner circle can be trusted? Do they feel confident that they could weather a financial emergency?

[alexginger]

As someone from a very volatile region. My priority would be long lasting stability. Stability is key for prosperity.

[Alkalus]

If the world used GNH over GDP to measure how suitable a country is for residency, I think we will be able to see how people from different places feel about how their living standards based on their experience. We can share our perspectives as well, thus everyone can learn which countries seem best to live in at the moment. But, we should take a moment to find anything good about our own countries even if they are not the best.

[blutmond]

I had a lesson in school that was about this topic. We also talked about the other indexes that exist and not only the GDP, like you did in this video. It was really interesting and it’s funny to see a video about it that was posted just a few months later.😊

[InfoChannelOfficial]

Ted-Ed always makes videos on questions I've had lingering on my mind for a long time, but never cared to search up 😅

[enbi]

As someone living in a 3rd world country, going to 1st world countries to find greener pastures is the usual dream. The cost of living is a great consideration since many places are so expensive. New Zealand, Netherlands, and Australia are usually the most preferred countries that my fellow countrymen want to migrate in.

[morebaklavapls]

I grow up in a pretty rich life in dubai to now a somewhat poor life in a 3rd world country due to poor parent choices. i can tell you living in a "Poor country" isn't great, If you dont have connections or rich parents everything is a Million times harder to do.
And knowing your previous life standards makes everything else much miserable.

[coldscorpion]

The peace and security index should also be considered. I love the fact that I don’t have to fear public shootings or even being robbed at night

[MayurHill]

Thanks, this gives some insights to many of us for Future.

[OER]

As a Costarrican, born and raised, I have to disagree with the final outcome from the video.
While I understand that growth is somewhat environmentally responsible, there’s more to this. For example, traffic in Costa Rica is just absurd, the accessibility to buy and build your own house is completely off the table for the medium and lower classes, and the price for public services is just off the charts.
I understand this is a paradise with multiple benefits, but most of those benefits are only available for foreigners that have the possibility to afford them. Costarricans are getting out of the picture every single day.

[Uzair_Of_Babylon]

Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job

[ankurm]

This is where Gandhi's village republics holds sway. I've lived in many countries, Switzerland, Indonesia, Japan, Peru, Chile and about 20 odd countries, but after 20 years of being a nomad, here's what I realised. Any place with a strong sense of community and progressivism will always have a better quality of life. I am currently living and working in a small state in India's Northeast called, Meghalaya. It's remote as can be (from the capital of India), but it has a strong sense of community (enshrined by an age-old principle called, 'Khlaw Adong' or village forests protected and kept apart by the villagers for conserving water and bio-diversity) and they take pride in universal education and healthcare (something I saw during coronovirus, when not many people died because of lack of healthcare services). In all other matrices, it is a LLDC (or least-developed landlocked country) but what do you know!!

[zoharianovici]

One of these “dashboards” mentioned is the Doughnut Economics model, which measures planetary boundaries and social economic indicators (such as the SDG). Highly recommend looking it up

[NXaiUL]

If you are happy or relatively satisfied where you live then it's the best place for you.

[gulammohammad]

Nice video some parts of it reminded me of my highschool days

[lilgreenieskiisvlogchannel]

I love Ted-Ed!! It's fun to listen to in the background while doing homework! I learn so much!

[fernandoballester]

Incredible, 4 minutes to say what I thought at the beginning, thanks :)