Living Green: The best (and worst) countries

Just because a country or place is environmentally “fit” doesn’t mean you’d want to spend your life there – think jungles or the Antarctic. But finding the perfect balance between what’s green and what’s livable could lead you to paradise. Aiming for that ideal, we researched the world’s greenest countries while also ensuring they were ones where people could thrive. Along the way, we also unearthed the worst places in the world to live.

How Countries Rate

1     Finland
2     Iceland
3     Norway
4     Sweden
5     Austria
8    Australia
19    New Zealand
23    USA

Bottom 5

137     Chad
138     Burkina Faso
139     Sierra Leone
140     Niger
141     Ethiopia

The world’s greenest, most livable cities

Using different data, we analysed 72 major international cities, ranking them in terms of being green and livable.

5 Best

1     Stockholm
2     Oslo
3     Munich
4     Paris
5     Frankfurt

5 Worst

68     Bangkok
69     Guangzhou
70     Mumbai
71     Shanghai
72     Beijing

How Australasia ranked

28     Perth
29     Melbourne
34     Wellington
40     Sydney
42     Brisbane