SINGAPORE – Singapore has been ranked one of the healthiest countries in the world, according to a new study published in medical journal The Lancet.
In the study, which is based on the health-related Sustainable Development Goals that were set out by the United Nations, Singapore shared top spot with Scandinavian countries Iceland and Sweden in the ranking of 188 countries.
According to Bloomberg, more than 1,870 researchers in 124 countries collated data on 33 different health-related indicators, such as poverty, nutrition and rate of infections of diseases such as HIV, malaria and Hepatitis B.
Each country was rated on a score of 0-100, and Singapore scored 85.3, just slightly behind Iceland’s 85.5.
The Republic received a perfect score (100) on indicators such as disaster (death rate due to forces of nature) and sanitation (prevalence of population using unsafe sanitation). It was also the only country to score 100 for poisons (death rate due to unintentional poisonings).
However, Singapore did not fare as well on indicators measuring HIV infections and levels of PM2.5 particles.
On a broader level, the data shows varied rates of progress towards the different health goals, The Guardian reported. While more than 60 per cent of countries have already met 2030 targets on reducing maternal and child mortality, no country has met the goal of eliminating diseases such as tuberculosis or HIV by 2030.
Unsurprisingly, developed countries, especially those in Western Europe and Scandinavia, dominated the top of the rankings. But the United States was ranked only 28th, with poor scores in measures such as interpersonal violence, suicide rates, obesity and maternal mortality.
Among Asian countries, Brunei was the second-highest ranked after Singapore at 21, followed by Japan (27), Taiwan (32) and South Korea (32).
The massive study was funded by, but received no input from, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg reported.
