I’ve talked in this blog before about how conscious I am of any mention of Denmark in an international context, and Dorte recently spotted the study below.

Although the news in question appeared in the Danish newspaper Berlingske (which has the rather impressive URL of b.dk), it’s actually based on a study from The Economist, which looked at the best countries in the world to be born in, in 2013.

If you’re at all switched on to the state of the world, it probably won’t be too much of a surprise that Scandinavia has a good showing, with all 3 Scandi-lands in the top 5. Denmark came in at 5 in this where-to-be-born index, behind Sweden, Norway, Australia and Switzerland at #1 (so, kudos to our Zurich correspondent).  The USA is at #16 (jointly with Germany) and the UK is at #27.

Take a look at the Economist link for an explanation of the rationale (essentially, it’s based on forecasting the state of a country in 2030, when people born in 2013 will reach adulthood). It’s an interesting read in itself.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that seeing my new home country do well in any sort of poll like this causes me pride, but I’m also honest enough to admit that I’d be a little annoyed in some way if I saw it doing badly. I guess I’ll have to stick around till 2030 to see if they got it right.