List of foreign-born residents  

Around the world, there is a rapid move from country to town. Here are the figures, giving the percentage of the people who live in towns and the rate of change expected.

The figures for life expectancy at birth come from a variety of sources and, surprisingly, vary quite a lot. Nonetheless, they remind us about how startlingly different things can be depending upon the place where you were born. Japan 83.7, Swaziland 49.2.

For those of us who are mathematically challenged, the median age is the age at which there are as many people older as there are younger. Median Age The map gives a quick overview:

The number of people living below the poverty line is difficult to establish: partly because the definition of poverty varies so much from country to country – or isn’t even defined at all. However, these figures are a starting point for your thought process.

Increasingly, we see two different measurements for unemployment: overall unemployment and youth unemployment. Both are important and will influence you: whether you are trying to find work or thinking of setting up in business.

There is a great debate about whether public (government) debt matters. Is it a good idea to ‘borrow to invest’? How much? How should it be spent?

At Guides.Global we are pretty set in our opinion that too much borrowing is a bad thing: landing your children and grand-children with debt is immoral. You may, of course, disagree. Whatever your view, the level of public debt in the countries where you might live or do business is a factor to take into account.

Inflation is a major issue in many countries: so much so that you might think twice about living or doing business there.

GDP and GNI, possibly adjusted for inflation and/or for PPP, sometimes shown as an amount per person (per capita) and sometimes as a simple total, are constantly used as a measure of a country’s wealth. What do they mean? How do countries compare across the world?

For most people living, working or doing business is a foreign country, corruption is a major enemy. Of course, a few businesses – and individuals – thrive on corruption. They are not your friend!

The Corruption Perception Index from Transparency International has been around for a long time can help you a lot when it comes to risk assessment. Whilst nowhere is perfect, you need very good reasons to be dealing with the countries way down the list!

The Rule of Law Index – produced by the World Justice Project – is one of the most useful indicators about what it is like to live or operate in a country. If there is no rule of law, why would you want to be – or do business – there?

Terrorism is the concern-of-the-moment. There are some countries hardly affected by it. Would you want to live in them?

The Vision of Humanity “Peace Index” gives you sometimes surprising insights as to how peaceful the country where you want to live really is.

Surprise: Japan has more than twice as many hospital beds (per 1000 people) as France – and nearly 10 times as many as Mexico.

Would you believe there are countries where there are over 70 doctors per 10,000 people – and many others where there are fewer than one?

All over the world, expenditure on health is on the rise. In most developed countries, it had more than doubled since 1970. However, and not surprisingly, there are huge inequalities. In 2016, the US spent $9,636 per person: Zambia $203.

Let’s face it. Some countries are ‘challenging’ places to live. The UN Human Development Index gives show an interesting way of seeing how countries are doing.

With populations from 1.4 billion (China) down to 800 (Vatican City) there is no shortage of variety. Equally, with some countries still growing at nearly 5% per year and others shrinking by 1% per year, the future could look very different.

Did you know that the world’s largest country (Russia) is nearly 8 million times bigger than its smallest (Monaco)?

Drinking water is in short supply – and could be the trigger for many future conflicts. Even worse, for many people ‘good’, clean drinking water is a distant dream.