Singapore (Rank 79) Has Poor Quality of Life Index

Kuali Baba SG

It'd be irresponsible not to post the link to what the editors wrote, so here it is:

http://www.internationalliving.com/internal_components/further_resources/quality_of_life08

You'll also see how they came up with the figures. Take note of what they say:

"You’ll notice as you review this year’s Index that the places International Living normally recommends you think about living or retiring fall nowhere near the top in the final rankings.

"Most of these details, when considered individually and out of context, are nearly meaningless.

"But, just as a healthy gross domestic product and a lot of cell phones in circulation don’t necessarily translate to a good life, neither do an abundance of administrative red tape and restrictive systems for doing business necessarily mean a bad one.

"What, then, does make for a good quality of life? You’ll have to answer the question for yourself, and, when you do, here’s what we suggest: Place a premium on the things that can’t be plugged into a spreadsheet. A country (or a city or a region) may make great sense on paper but appeal to you not at all when you visit. And vice versa."

Read also "Our Western Bias" further down the page.

In short, neither this nor DeerHunter's posted survey should be taken as definitive. Decide what is most important to you. Talk to people, visit the places you're interested in, expose yourself to their way of life, and decide for yourself.

I know I won't be staying, I have my own reasons, and it isn't because we're the lowest-ranked developed nation in this publication's QoL index.

lionnoisy SG

Hong Kong has been the freeest economy in the world for 10 years.

U ask the graduate there.U will know the choice of jobs

less than SG.

Ranking cant put foods on the table.

The reality counts.

Like other rankings,they use their yard stick to measure.

Some SG pple will be happy that they find another good reason

to leave.Congra!!

45 75 60 39 42 78 53 100 39 58

Cost of Living and economy each allocated max 15%,the rest each 10%.

Cost of Living 45

Cost of Living (15% of the final ranking). This is a guide to how much it will cost you to live in a style comparable to—or better than—the standard of living you’re likely enjoying in the U.S. Our primary source in this category is the U.S. State Department’s Index of Overseas Living Costs, used to compute cost-of-living allowances for a Western-style of living in various countries. We also consider each country’s income tax rates.

First world country of course not cheap.But our tax is very low

in first world,even u take GST into acct.

Leisure & Culture 75

Culture and Leisure (10%). To calculate this score, we look at literacy rate, newspaper circulation per 1,000 people, primary and secondary school enrollment ratios, number of people per museum, and a subjective rating of the variety of cultural and recreational offerings.

If u include patrons of 4 D,then it is ok.

Economy 60

Economy (15%). We consider interest rates, GDP, GDP growth rate, GDP per capita, the inflation rate, and GNP per capita to determine each country’s Economy score.

Besides,3.3 million of citizens and some 500,000 of PR,SG still

can feed 900,000 Foreigners working here.And they still give so low!!

They must forget SWF!!

Environment..39

Environment (10%). To figure a country’s score in this category, we look at population density per square kilometer, population growth rate, greenhouse emissions per capita, and the percentage of total land that is protected .

How much land can we protect ?we only have 700km2.

But they forget we can collect water in our soil to provide 50%

for our needs.

Freedom 42

Freedom (10%). Freedom House’s 2007 survey is the main source for these scores, with an emphasis on a citizen’s political rights and civil liberties.

They are very generous.Thanks.

Health 78

Health (10%). In this category, we look at calorie consumption as a percentage of daily requirements, the number of people per doctor, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people, the percentage of the population with access to safe water, the infant mortality rate, life expectancy, and public health expenditure as a percentage of a country’s GDP.

SG is the lowest in infant mortality rate in the whole world.

Only half of Aussie!!

Are they mean the higher % in GDP for public health the better?Rubbish.

Infrastructure 53

Infrastructure (10% ). To calculate a country’s Infrastructure score, we look at the length of railways, paved highways, and navigable waterways in each country, and equated these things to each country’s population and size. We also consider the number of airports, motor vehicles , telephones, Internet service providers, and cell phones per capita.

If they calculate the passengers and goods throughput

in relationship to population and land areas,they will give us 101 marks.

Risk & Safety..100

Safety and Risk (10%). For this category, we use the U.S. Department of State’s hardship Differentials and danger allowances, which are based on extraordinarily difficult, notably unhealthy, or dangerous living conditions.

But not to some professional and I- want -to save-everyone blogger.

Climate...39

Climate (10%). When deciding on a score for each country’s climate, we look at its average annual rainfall and average temperature…and consider its risk for natural disasters.

Ha.How many places in the world without

earthquake nor

tsunami nor

typhoon nor

tornado nor

floodings nor

drought?

and only get 39?

Singapore is one of the few!!

Is the high rainfall/temperature a plus or minus?

Final Score...58--Thanks.Very generous.

Never mind the figurs.I just want to keep this one as No.1--

SG is the lowest in infant mortality rate in the whole world.

U can keep all the other 100 marks in the world .Oh Baby.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

deathmaster SG

Actually, I don't really care where Singapore ranked... But I am more interested in the way they rank. Read about some maslow hierarchy of needs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Basically, you will want to fill up the needs at the bottom before filling up those at the top, so you basically don't care about culture and arts unless you can fulfill your food and safety needs.

Which is why arts and culture is a consider a good gauge of a country's wellbeing, as they actually have the luxury to care about them. Just imagine the importance the iraqis give to arts compare to safety.

Think france deserved to be top in standard of living, with it's free and leisurely culture and relative shorter work hours. If you think of it that way, Singapore is somewhere in the middle, with it's stressful life in general.

i guess the gahment focus more on the top than the bottom....

Pitot SG

Where else can i go out for late night suppers?

Where else can i party till very late at night?

Where else can i find the mixture of food that i like?

Where else can i find such weather?

Where else can i enjoy the local culture?

You might find places that has one or 2 of the above points. But none with all.

Thats why i say it is subjective.

Money is not everything in life you know.

We can pay and pay, and not like it, but there is just much more to life than grumbling about paying.

maurizio13 SG

i guess the gahment focus more on the top than the bottom....

Those on the top are those that can afford to put money into Singapore; who are the poor?

When you are poor, you don't mean anything to anyone.

Without money, I doubt anyone can enjoy any of those basic necessities.

SingaporeTyrannosaur SG

Final Score...58--Thanks.Very generous.

Never mind the figurs.I just want to keep this one as No.1--

SG is the lowest in infant mortality rate in the whole world.

U can keep all the other 100 marks in the world .Oh Baby.

Are you trying to say you are short-sighted? Birth is a very small part of life.

What good is lowest infant mortality with a fertility rate that dropped to 1.24?

Even if you had the lowest infant mortality, but life overall is stressful and overall the rest of your life is only ranked a low 58?

It's no wonder you only want this No.1, it fits in with your selective way of using certain facts and discarding the rest.

Is this the same method you used to ignore certain important questions posed to you such as those asked in military nuts, and also the the one about you using clones?

gigabyte14 SG

we security good, can riao lor

im surprised taiwan and some middle eastern countries win us

maurizio13 SG

Hong Kong has been the freeest economy in the world for 10 years.

U ask the graduate there.U will know the choice of jobs

less than SG.

Ranking cant put foods on the table.

The reality counts.

Like other rankings,they use their yard stick to measure.

Some SG pple will be happy that they find another good reason

to leave.Congra!!

45 75 60 39 42 78 53 100 39 58

Cost of Living and economy each allocated max 15%,the rest each 10%.

Cost of Living 45

First world country of course not cheap.But our tax is very low

in first world,even u take GST into acct.

Leisure & Culture 75

If u include patrons of 4 D,then it is ok.

Economy 60

Besides,3.3 million of citizens and some 500,000 of PR,SG still

can feed 900,000 Foreigners working here.And they still give so low!!

They must forget SWF!!

Environment..39

How much land can we protect ?we only have 700km2.

But they forget we can collect water in our soil to provide 50%

for our needs.

Freedom 42

They are very generous.Thanks.

Health 78

SG is the lowest in infant mortality rate in the whole world.

Only half of Aussie!!

Are they mean the higher % in GDP for public health the better?Rubbish.

Infrastructure 53

If they calculate the passengers and goods throughput

in relationship to population and land areas,they will give us 101 marks.

Risk & Safety..100

But not to some professional and I- want -to save-everyone blogger.

Climate...39

Ha.How many places in the world without

earthquake nor

tsunami nor

typhoon nor

tornado nor

floodings nor

drought?

and only get 39?

Singapore is one of the few!!

Is the high rainfall/temperature a plus or minus?

Final Score...58--Thanks.Very generous.

Never mind the figurs.I just want to keep this one as No.1--

SG is the lowest in infant mortality rate in the whole world.

U can keep all the other 100 marks in the world .Oh Baby.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

Health 78

SG is the lowest in infant mortality rate in the whole world.

Only half of Aussie!!

Are they mean the higher % in GDP for public health the better?Rubbish.

Don't understand what you meant by your statement "Only half of Aussie!!", as can be seen from the data, Australia had a score of 91 for health and Singapore 78, mathematically it's not half.

Alas the scoring system is not based soley on infant mortality rate, as can be seen from the explanation of the scoring system, they based it on a number of criterias, some of these factors are, number of people per doctor, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people and public expenditure as a percentage of a country's GDP.

If you look at doctors per 1,000 population, Singapore is 140 doctors per 100,000 population, whereas Australia is 247 doctors per 100,000 population. Isn't it better to have more doctors per population?

http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/58.html

As for hospital beds per 1,000 population, Singapore has 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 population, whereas Australia has 7.4 hospital beds per 1,000 population. Isn't it better to have more hospital beds per 1,000 population?

(Data from The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2007 edition)

For your comment about higher GDP spending on healthcare being bad, then maybe you should consider what are the consequences if government has ZERO spending on healthcare. So essentially, does lower spending on healthcare means good, or higher spending on healthcare good?

The statistics I posted below are abit outdated, unfortunately WHO doesn't have public access data for the current few years. The best I could managed was 2005-2006, but I guess it could provide some kind of a reference as to the fairness of their scoring system.

I don't see their system bias in this aspect of the analysis. Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we have been the victim(s) of government propaganda to the point of rejecting concrete data. The government has an ulterior motive to manipulate data (propaganda) to it's convenience so as to pacify her citizens, what ulterior motive has this organisation reporting on the quality of life for 192 countries.

Atobe SG

Actually, I don't really care where Singapore ranked... But I am more interested in the way they rank. Read about some maslow hierarchy of needs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Basically, you will want to fill up the needs at the bottom before filling up those at the top, so you basically don't care about culture and arts unless you can fulfill your food and safety needs.

Every generation will have to encounter "Maslow's hierachy of needs".

The "quality of life" for each generation will depend on how quickly each generation can reach the top of that hierachy of needs; or at which level it gets stuck without further progress over some tolerable span in time.

Depending on the peer pressure or societal influence, each may have different goals or ambitions; or different levels of drive and satisfaction - that will determine each person's perception in the "quality of life" attained, and voluntarily stopped further progress at differing points in Maslow's level of needs.

Maslow's model is only a road map in gauging the path in which one takes in Life to attain satisfaction - represented as the quality of life.

If Maslow's guide is followed as the basis to evaluate Singaporean's position, do you think that Singaporeans have reached the top rung of Maslow's model in SELF-ACTUALISATION - the top index in the Quality of Life measure ?

According to your wikipedia reference on Maslow - SELF-ACTUALISATION -

"is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can. Working toward fulfilling our potential, toward becoming all that we are capable of becoming".

Can SELF-ACTUALISATION be achieved by Singaporeans after 50 years as a nation moving from self-rule to independence, from a colonial entrepot to a financial, manufacturing and service centre ?

Has Singaporeans been allowed to achieve self-actualisation in a society in which a paternalistic system has been put in place - that forced Singaporeans to depend on the monopolistic enterprise of the Ruling Political Party bent on controlling and monopolising every aspects of political life of every Singaporean ?

When the Ruling Political Party removes the political rights of the Citizens - after being elected by the Citizens - can there be Quality of Life in the high index ?

lionnoisy SG

Don't understand what you meant by your statement "Only half of Aussie!!", as can be seen from the data, Australia had a score of 91 for health and Singapore 78, mathematically it's not half.

http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/58.html

(Data from The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2007 edition)

Look at CIA figures then u know.

No point to quote this or that figure.

The reality counts,brother.

If u believe all these figures and rely on them to decide your

next dream country to settle.U will regret.

For example,some survey put SG as one of the worst 10 or 5 in

water substainability etc .But what is the reality?

SG is now water technology export country.

Later,we can export real water!!

Take a look for a suvey in tax in few countries.

http://www.mypaper.com.sg/

u may say the survey is fault because the repondents may not

know how tax system in the other subject countries work.

Doctors and beds

Yes.u are right.May i remind u also look at the accessiblty

of health system and the quality of hospitals also.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4742599/public-hospitals-39-struggling-to-cope-39

June 30, 2008, 5:42 pm

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4742599/public-hospitals-39-struggling-to-cope-39

pl post your sources

The report, published annually, shows there were 6.7 million presentations to emergency departments in 2006-07 - the equivalent of a third of the population.

The average cost of treating a patient was $3,922.

......

The report also revealed waiting times for elective surgery.

The longest wait is for knee replacements - with a median wait of 162 days.

Septoplasty (113 days) and hip replacements (106 days) came in second and third.

Australian Medical Association president Rosanna Capolingua said the report showed the public hospital system was at breaking point.

She said the Rudd government had not done enough to fix the acute care system, and the report showed just how large that task was.

Ya.i know u will say SG medias are all controlled.

No bad news is allowed.

Ok ok.SG is not perfect.The food is hospitals is not as good as

5 stars hotels.

But have u stayed or vistited SG hospitals?

Take your Oz friends there for them to compare.

Before u decide your next dream country.

FYI.SG is building,not in the paper,a hospital in Yishun,

with another one later in Jurong or CCK.

One million foreigner patients seeking treatments here

last year cant be too wrong,

among them from western first world countries.

They cant wait there too long.

lionnoisy SG

i will be labeled as anti--Oz if i say too much.

read the news for health care in Oz---

http://au.news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?p=Hospitals&fr=yfp&ei=UTF-8

the Bear SG

i'll just say this... life.. is what you make of it..

the way you guys put it as if the gabrament made you do a lot of things which cause you to be miserable...

whatever happened to making the decisions for yourselves to make yourselves happy? or are you saying that you are incapable of making those decisions yourselves?

i don't have much but i have enough to be content.. and i'm happy because i choose to be...

do you dare to make such a decision?

jojobeach SG

i'll just say this... life.. is what you make of it..

the way you guys put it as if the gabrament made you do a lot of things which cause you to be miserable...

whatever happened to making the decisions for yourselves to make yourselves happy? or are you saying that you are incapable of making those decisions yourselves?

i don't have much but i have enough to be content.. and i'm happy because i choose to be...

do you dare to make such a decision?

Ah bear oii ah bear,

We can fully understand your predicament as a civil servant. Afterall, you are one too honest to bite the hand that writes your pay cheques.

But unfortunately, most of us are private citizens and we do have expectations for the leaders.

If we only live our life like you want.. what is the purpose of having a gabrament ?

If they cannot lead then step down, so we may lead our life the way we want.

lionnoisy SG

Are you trying to say you are short-sighted? Birth is a very small part of life.

What good is lowest infant mortality with a fertility rate that dropped to 1.24?

Even if you had the lowest infant mortality, but life overall is stressful and overall the rest of your life is only ranked a low 58?

It's no wonder you only want this No.1, it fits in with your selective way of using certain facts and discarding the rest.

Is this the same method you used to ignore certain important questions posed to you such as those asked in military nuts, and also the the one about you using clones?

Let me tell u.If u just calculate babies from parents both are SG citizens,

the rate will be lowers.CIA says 1.08.I have not checked it out yet.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html

The lowest infant mortality is just a small portion

in life.But how many time a couple will have a chance to have a baby

in life?This just show SG hospitals trys their best to improve.

So u know why so many foreign patients here.

But what do u want PAP to do?

Force married couples make love without protections

4 times a week under CCTV?

or u blame LKY asked pple stop at TWO when SG was very poor?

Oh.U followed CSJ!!

Or can we ban condoms in SG?

U just follow other pple surveys to live?

Cant u make your own judgements?

Or years later,u tell your kids that your migration decisions

based on other pple suvery findings?

Which country not stressed?

Share with us here?

What is the damn freedom and democracy for when

occasionally there are shootings in your country,

though a big country.

Pl be informed that Oz also allow gun carry---by bad guys.

And quite common.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shot-in-garden-manhunt-launched/2008/07/01/1214677995534.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23939558-661,00.html

dragg SG

best place to work and live but ranked 79 in quality of life?

AndrewPKYap SG

This just goes to show how bad the propaganda in Singapore is. We are constantly bombarded everyday how good this heaven for ass-sniffing dogs is. The truth is that it is "grab their money to stress them out so they are forced to work overtime and who cares about their quality of life" country run by dishonorable and unworthy despots.

AndrewPKYap SG

One more thing, grab their money and lose it to foreigners.

BARCLAYS (BARC.L)On Jul 1: 281.50 p 10.00 (3.43%)

ChiBet SG

If we look at it positively, we are still 2 ranks ahead of Malaysia.

Malaysia is crud, i would not be proud to be only 2 ranks ahead of Malaysia

maurizio13 SG

Look at CIA figures then u know.

No point to quote this or that figure.

The reality counts,brother.

If u believe all these figures and rely on them to decide your

next dream country to settle.U will regret.

For example,some survey put SG as one of the worst 10 or 5 in

water substainability etc .But what is the reality?

SG is now water technology export country.

Later,we can export real water!!

Take a look for a suvey in tax in few countries.

http://www.mypaper.com.sg/

u may say the survey is fault because the repondents may not

know how tax system in the other subject countries work.

Doctors and beds

Yes.u are right.May i remind u also look at the accessiblty

of health system and the quality of hospitals also.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4742599/public-hospitals-39-struggling-to-cope-39

June 30, 2008, 5:42 pm

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4742599/public-hospitals-39-struggling-to-cope-39

pl post your sources

Ya.i know u will say SG medias are all controlled.

No bad news is allowed.

Ok ok.SG is not perfect.The food is hospitals is not as good as

5 stars hotels.

But have u stayed or vistited SG hospitals?

Take your Oz friends there for them to compare.

Before u decide your next dream country.

FYI.SG is building,not in the paper,a hospital in Yishun,

with another one later in Jurong or CCK.

One million foreigner patients seeking treatments here

last year cant be too wrong,

among them from western first world countries.

They cant wait there too long.

First of all there are merits to the Australian Free Healthcare system that Singapore lacks. e.g. If say you fall sick now, you have used up all your medisave and cash. You walk into SGH and tell them you have no money to pay. Do you think they will attend to you, provide medication, hospital bed, consultation, test and surgery? I ever asked the admin staff in charge of medisave, I told them "I don't have any more money. Can I just use my medisave to pay for outpatient treatment?" They said, "No".

Let's look at this objectively, we have 140 doctors per 100,000 population, whereas Australia has 247 doctors per 100,000 population. Which means our doctors have to work almost twice as hard to see as many patients as the Australian doctors. Either that or, the only other reasonable explanation is, Singapore doctors have less patients to attend to, because the majority of them can't afford treatment, that's why they forgo treatment. With less patients for the Singapore doctors, it would be easier to maintain a shorter waiting time than the Australian doctors.

http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/58.html

Both healthcare system have its merits. The Australian system has it's merits because it leaves no man behind, even if you are penniless, healthcare will be accorded to you. A situation where something is free leads to abuse by people, with more citizens going for checkups and outpatient treatment, the patient number grows, therefore the long wait for treatment.

The article cited by you also states that, it's because of reduction of healthcare spending by the Howard government that resulted in the long waiting times. The new PM might be emphasizing extreme issues to make his point about healthcare, does it mean that for all cases it's always that long. Also isn't there more cause to increase public health spending rather than what you claim, spending less on healthcare is better. It is better for the Singapore government context because they place the onus on you to maintain your own medical bills.

"After 11 years of Liberal neglect - including $1 billion slashed from public hospitals in 2003 - there is much to be done," Ms Roxon said in a statement.

For the Singapore system, you have to be financially secure to be able to afford the treatment. If you don't have money, you need to beg, borrow or steal in order to get treatment. The waiting time is shorter, normally 1-2 months wait for outpatient treatment.

The merits for Singapore system is, the wait is 30 to 60 days, but you must be able to afford the hospital charges. No money no talk.

The merits of the Australian system is, it is free, but waiting time might be longer, but waiting times for cases differ, depending on your affliction. If the the doctor specialising in the particular area of medicine is rare, then longer waiting times are expected. Singapore system wait long long also don't have. 等久久都没有.

http://politics.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/288529?page=3

SingaporeTyrannosaur SG

Let me tell u.If u just calculate babies from parents both are SG citizens,

the rate will be lowers.CIA says 1.08.I have not checked it out yet.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html

The lowest infant mortality is just a small portion

in life.But how many time a couple will have a chance to have a baby

in life?This just show SG hospitals trys their best to improve.

You are clearly talking rubbish here.

Firstly Singapore is a CITY STATE, hence it's infant mortality rates are what you'd expect from a urbanized CITY with relatively good medical care, because it is all easily accessable in the small island.

Hence's it's EXPECTED that it has to have a low infant morality, because of the lack of rural areas and births that other nations have to contend with. When other nations tally their infant mortality, they have to factor in births in rural and non urban areas which will certainly drive up the figure.

Hence Singapore's low infant mortality rate is not due to actual good care, but more of geographic size.

But the most shocking thing is that how Singapore, being a small nation and hence making it very easy to make healthcare accessable to its population can actually score WORSE then many other nations, especially Australia.

« Previous Page Next Page »