CYPRUS ranks 22nd out of 174 countries on the UN=s Human Development Index for 2000 — higher than Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and all of the island=s neighbours.
Top of the list of the 46 countries with high human development is Canada, followed by Norway, the US, Australia and Iceland. The UK is ranked 10th after Japan and before France, Switzerland and Germany. Below Cyprus are Israel ranked 23rd, Greece at 25 and Malta, 27th.
Countries rated as having only medium human development include Turkey at number 85 and Lebanon at 82, while at the bottom of the list with the lowest human development is Sierra Leone. Other countries from the 34 listed in this category include Rwanda, Zambia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
Overall ratings on the index, which is compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are based on life expectancy, adult literacy, health indices, crime, gender issues, poverty and other criteria.
The figures for Cyprus vary according to category and the availability of statistics. Although Cyprus is ahead of Greece and Hong Kong on the overall table, life expectancy in both are higher than the island=s 77.9 years while those of Britain, Germany and Belgium are lower than Cyprus.
Sierra Leone=s life expectancy is only 37.9 years.
In Cyprus, as in most other countries, women tend to live longer than men, but their literacy rate is lower, unlike the more highly developed countries where men and women are on a par.
But Cyprus also has one of the lowest rates of women in parliament at 7.1 per cent of the total compared to Scandinavian countries, which register more than 30 per cent. Even bottom of the list Sierra Leone has a higher parliamentary female representation than Cyprus (8.8 per cent).
In what are classed as the developing countries, Cyprus is top of the list although many of the figures relating to income disparities are missing.
But according to the table, the island=s GDP per capita quadrupled from $3,619 to $12,857 in 1998, one of the biggest leaps recorded but still lower than all of the developed countries and many of those further down the scale such as Hong Kong, Malta and Singapore.
Huge changes also took place in life expectancy and infant mortality rates over the past 25 years. Cypriots are now living on average over six years longer and infant mortality has dropped from 29 per 100,000 in 1970 to eight per 100,000 in 1998.
Cyprus also has more doctors per head of population than many developed countries, at 231 — even more than top-of-the-list Canada=s 221. But the island falls short when it comes to nurses with only 425 per capita, which is less than even Mongolia at No. 117 on the overall index.
Instances of HIV and Aids place Cyprus quite high among the developed countries affecting 0.26 per cent of the population compared to Norway=s 0.06 per cent, Britain=s 0.09 per cent, Israel=s 0.07 per cent and Greece=s 0.14 per cent.
Cyprus= statistics for percentage of the population who smoke are missing from the list, but as an indication, Greeks come in second from the top of the 174 countries, after Colombia.
Cypriots have fewer televisions than they did ten years ago with 167 per 1,000 people, dropping from 183 per 1,000 in 1990, making it one of the lowest on the entire list.
The US clocks in on top with 847 TVs per 1,000 but even China and El Salvador have more than Cyprus, the figures show.
Phone lines per 1,000 people have also increased over the past ten years from 428 per 1,000 to 585 per 1,000, comparing favourably with the developed countries, but the number of public call boxes has dropped in the same period. Mobile phone users have increased fifty-fold since 1990, from five per 1,000 people to 168 today, but Cyprus still lags behind countries listed above and blow it on the index. Finland has the highest with more than half the population owning a mobile.
Surprisingly Cypriots also consume on average more than 3,000 calories per day, almost on a par with diet-obsessed Americans and more than most European countries.
Fat consumption has increased by 40 per cent since 1970 to 147 fat grams per day, one of the highest figures on the entire index with Belgium, Austria and France leading the way. Britain, Denmark and Switzerland are the only European countries which registered a smaller intake of fat in the same period.
Crime statistics show Cyprus to be one of the safest countries, but the figures date back to 1994. Cyprus is also high on the list of road deaths and injuries clocking in at 603 per 100,000, which is double that of many European countries — including Greece.
