Judging the quality of life in a country may be difficult at one glance. The Environment Performance Index (EPI) and Human Development Index (HDI) rankings help us get an overall picture of a country’s policies in terms of the environment and wellness of the people.
Environment Performance Index (EPI) groups 40 performance indicators into 11 issue categories such as Air Quality, Waste Management, Water & Sanitation, Heavy Metals, Climate Change Mitigation, Biodiversity & Habitat, Ecosystem Services, Fisheries, Agriculture, Acid Rain and Water Resources. The following are the top 10 countries on the 2022 EPI report.
| Country | EPI score |
| Denmark | 77.9 |
| United Kingdom | 77.7 |
| Finland | 76.5 |
| Malta | 75.2 |
| Sweden | 72.7 |
| Luxembourg | 72.3 |
| Slovenia | 67.3 |
| Austria | 66.5 |
| Switzerland | 65.9 |
| Iceland | 62.8 |
Human Development Index (HDI) takes into account a long healthy life, knowledge and decent standards of living of the people in a country. They are then awarded with a rating between 0 and 1. The following are the top 10 countries according to the 2019 HDI report.
| Country | HDI value |
| Norway | 0.957 |
| Ireland | 0.955 |
| Switzerland | 0.955 |
| Hong Kong, China (SAR) | 0.949 |
| Iceland | 0.949 |
| Germany | 0.947 |
| Sweden | 0.945 |
| Australia | 0.944 |
| Netherlands | 0.944 |
| Denmark | 0.940 |
Both indices have taken some amount of criticism over the years regarding errors in data collection and choice of metrics. Yet, they still remain an important tool to quantify the direction of growth of a country and give governments a chance to reflect upon its policies.
