Economist - Ireland 12th best place to be born in 2013

[Esselte]

economist.com/news/21566430- … ttery-life

Up from 16th spot in 1988

[Coles2]

Big falls for the major ‘Western’ economies, and Japan.

[yoganmahew]

Big falls for the major ‘Western’ economies, and Japan.

Where do you find the 1988 ranking?

Anyway, it’s not a comparison, despite pretending to be:

America was helped to the top spot back in 1988 by the inclusion in the ranking of a “philistine factor” (for cultural poverty) and a “yawn index” (the degree to which a country might, despite all its virtues, be irredeemably boring). Switzerland scored terribly on both counts.

Despite its troubles, Greece still ranks above all the BRICs + pretenders…

[Coles2]

Big falls for the major ‘Western’ economies, and Japan.

Where do you find the 1988 ranking?

Scroll down through Esselte’s link page and you’ll see it.

[yoganmahew]

Scroll down through Esselte’s link page and you’ll see it.

Thank you - haven’t got my glasses on

Yeah, it looks like a pretty bogus comparison - you’d need to know what the current 11 criteria are and either use them for 1988 numbers or use the 8 ‘proper’ criteria from 1988 only.

[Coles2]

Yeah, it looks like a pretty bogus comparison…

Ah, don’t be like that, Yog. This is a good news thread.

[yoganmahew]

Yeah, it looks like a pretty bogus comparison…

Ah, don’t be like that, Yog. This is a good news thread.

Ah, it’s just that a number of the rankings in 1988 look to be goosed by politically motivated bogus indicators. Number of economist readers per million, for example.

If anything, it understates Ireland’s improvement.