Jamaica trails all but one Caribbean nation in the Human Development Index (HDI) 2006 report released yesterday, registering an unflattering 104th in the 177-country document. The only Caribbean country which ranked below Jamaica was Haiti (154), still grappling with the triple scourge of widespread violence and social upheaval, poverty and illiteracy.

The report, which rates not only per-capita income, but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring general standards of living, ranked Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden as the best five countries to live in.

The United States was ranked eighth, after Canada and Japan. Switzerland and The Netherlands round out the top 10. Africa monopolises the bottom 23 places.

Economic dynamo, Barbados, was rated the 31st best place to reside, the top-rated nation in the Caribbean and Latin America. Communist Cuba ranked No. 50, followed by St. Kitts and Nevis and Bahamas, respectively.

Trinidad and Tobago (57) and Antigua and Barbuda (59) were also rated in the top 63 countries in the world.

The good, bad and ugly

Rankings 1-63 represent nations described as having a high level of human development. Countries placing 64-146 are considered to have medium human development, while those below are deemed underdeveloped backwaters.

Jamaica has slumped in the HDI, dropping six places from 98 in the 2005 report. According to the 2006 report, which actually measures data of 2004, the northern Caribbean island's adult literacy, age 15 and older, stands at 79 per cent, a three-per cent drop from 1990 levels. The country doesn't stand favourably against most of its regional neighbours who register in the mid- or deep '90s.

Reuters news agency contributed to this story.