豊かな国

アイルランド第４位。メモとして貼り付け。

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/1110/1163059680368.html

Brennan dismisses UN data on Irish poverty

A United Nations report has rated Ireland as the fourth best country in which to live, a rise of four places on last year. However, it also ranks the State as 17th out of 18 rich countries for poverty levels, writes Ruadhán Mac Cormaic.

Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan said the data by which Ireland was judged to have one of the highest poverty rates of rich countries was outdated, inaccurate and "distorted the reality".

The report, published yesterday by the UN Development Programme, assesses countries' performance on wealth, life expectancy and education. It puts Ireland in fourth place, behind Norway, Iceland and Australia.

A strong recent economic performance was the main factor in Ireland's rise, with unprecedented annual growth rates from 1990-2004 among the highest of the top 50 states in the development index.

The figures also point to Ireland's low adult unemployment rate and good school enrolment ratios, but notes relatively high youth unemployment and the low representation of women in senior positions.

The document points to an ever-widening development gap between the world's richest and poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, is stagnating. It calls for urgent global action to resolve a growing water and sanitation crisis.

Overall, some 1.1 billion people lack safe water and 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation.

While Norway is deemed the best place to live, Niger in west Africa is the worst, unchanged from last year. People in Norway are more than 40 times wealthier than people in Niger.

The full text of the UN human development report is available at www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/2006/unreport/index.pdf

© The Irish Times

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