Yipee! Singapore has done it again.

A comprehensive new analysis published this week has ranked Singapore number two as world leaders when it comes to health goals set by the United Nations, according to a study published in the Lancet. (Via Bloomberg, Sept. 22.)

Here are the rankings for the top 30 countries based on measures of dozens of factors, including diseases, suicide rates, road injuries, smoking, water quality and war:

1. Iceland

2. Singapore

3. Sweden

4. Andorra

5. United Kingdom

6. Finland

7. Spain

8. Netherlands

9. Canada

10. Australia

11. Norway

12. Luxembourg

13. Ireland

14. Malta

15. Germany

16. Denmark

17. Cyprus

18. Belgium

19. Switzerland

20. Italy

21. Brunei

22. Portugal

23. Israel

24. France

25. Slovenia

26. Greece

27. Japan

28. United States

29. Estonia

30. New Zealand

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly established the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs specify 17 universal goals, 169 targets, and 230 indicators leading up to 2030.

According to the Bloomberg article, the euphemism for sustainable development efforts is "not killing ourselves or the planet". Or, in other other words, survival of the human species.

The ranking was derived after more than 1,870 researchers in 124 countries compiled data on 33 different indicators of progress toward the UN goals related to health using the UN’s sustainable development goals as guideposts.

These measures of progress include areas easier to observe such as poverty, clean water and education, as well as the less obvious, such as societal inequality and industry innovation.

However, data obtained on numerous topics from all over the world had to be scrubbed and parsed by the research team before making comparisons.

Measurements have not been easy due to "nebulous categories" and "confusing terminology" making evaluation of indicators taxing and at times incomplete, despite the voluminous work done.

For example, the researchers were able so far to evaluate just 70 percent of the health-related indicators called for by the UN, which make measuring the UN goals on health seem even more daunting.

As noted in the article, Iceland, which barely edges out Singapore and Sweden for the No. 1 spot, is credited for aggressive anti-tobacco policies and its publicly funded universal health-care system.

For Singapore to be ranked number two, the country is doing well in many aspects compared to social democracies in Scandinavia Europe with low infant mortality, low levels of violence, equal access to skilled healthcare workers and not shooting one another with firearms -- a significant problem in the US which penalised them in the rankings.

Hence, the analysis does highlight the importance of income, education, and fertility as drivers of health improvement, but also emphasises that investments in these areas alone will not be sufficient.

One problem across the world, the study shows, is that in all regions of the world and across the economic development spectrum, the problem of overweight children has grown worse.

Funding for the research was by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Top photo via

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