The Hostest With The Mostest And The League Of Nations

April 17, 2003 8:29 AM

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?The best quality of life? The most divorces? The most mobile phones? The highest cost of living? Which one is the most visited? Rank the bastards! After browsing through this website, I'm sure the conclusion that we're all living in the wrong one is inescapable. The statistics and sources may be questionable, but there sure are a lot of interesting lists here! Meanwhile my own country, Portugal, has just been denounced as the the laziest in Europe and the booziest in the world. They lie! They lie! [Actually, it's a fair cop, guv. And it was nice to drag down the Brits with us.]
posted by MiguelCardoso (53 comments total)

The United States, for instance, seem very good value - in fact, extremely cheap - for what you get, even though it could be cleaner and have better oil reserves. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:42 AM on April 17, 2003

The suicide rates are pretty telling.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:44 AM on April 17, 2003

East Timor, Independence Date of May 20, 2003? heh

http://www.easttimor.com/events.html ahhh, okay, I thought I lost a month somewhere. I'm just getting used to losing an hour.

the life expectancy list is a tad surprising.
posted by erisfree at 9:04 AM on April 17, 2003

In the Divorce rates section, I'm wondering what's going on in Maldives? It tops the chart with over a 10% rate of divorce within a population of only 300,000 people. Maybe marriage there just isn't the big deal it is in other places...
posted by lpqboy at 9:11 AM on April 17, 2003

Weapons of Mass Destruction - coming soon.

Oh, like we haven't been hearing that for months now.
posted by yhbc at 9:17 AM on April 17, 2003

Libya above South Africa?!

Good work Miguel.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:18 AM on April 17, 2003

I was pretty sure India was in Asia and had a population of over a billion, but apparently it's not true.
posted by riffola at 9:21 AM on April 17, 2003

Umm...I beg to differ. All one has to do is get off the plane in Dallas to confirm that TEXAS is the country with the most beautiful women. Nuff said...
posted by Pressed Rat at 9:23 AM on April 17, 2003

Well PressedRat, I am all for making Texas a separate country if you will reclaim your bastard child in the whitehouse ;-)
posted by madamjujujive at 9:29 AM on April 17, 2003

riffola - GDP of $2.2 trillion, zero population, that's... why yes, that's infinite GDP per capita!

Good job those Indians! Who needs Empress Victoria?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:32 AM on April 17, 2003

*Packs bags for Venezuela*
posted by KnitWit at 9:35 AM on April 17, 2003

It's nice to see that when it comes to suicide, Slovenia is a global hyperpower.

In the 1960s, Slovenia actually led the world in suicides, especially teenage ones. There was even a secret society in Ljubljana expressly dedicated to the art of self-termination. (Of course, no one knows for sure about it, since it was secret, and its members never lived to tell the tale...)

I'm not sure why the rate is so staggeringly high here. The usual suspects I hear about are: the high rate of alcoholism, a Slovenian "suicide gene," or the coupling of high literacy and low wages, which pushes people into the abyss. (For the morbidly curious, see also: Slovenia's Suicidal Tendencies.)
posted by Ljubljana at 9:41 AM on April 17, 2003

Miguel's quality post rating goes up 10%, despite sensationalist lead-in...;)
posted by Lynsey at 9:42 AM on April 17, 2003

I'm wondering what's going on in Maldives? It tops the chart with over a 10% rate of divorce within a population of only 300,000 people.

I wondered that too. Apparently Maldivians (?) play loose with Islamic marriage laws and get married and divorced from the same people and multiple partners again and again,

Scroll to "The Society" section here for more...

From the link above..."By Islamic law as interpreted in the Maldives, the same man and woman can marry three times, after which they must marry other partners, and then they are free to marry each other another three times. An official notification limited the number maximum to three such cycles, or nine marriages for the same couple. But by giving a gift to charity even this could be relaxed, so some couples have remarried many more times than that. Traditionally there was an element of pride, even piety, in a man having had many marriages. Some individuals claim to have had forty to eighty marriages."
posted by tdstone at 9:44 AM on April 17, 2003

don't be in such a hurry to get to Venezuela (though the women are gorgeous)
posted by mrgrimm at 9:45 AM on April 17, 2003

I'm moving to Portugal. but i have one question, if i do not drink, can i see be lazy?

my first love was a greek cobblers daughter.
I was in the third grade. My second love has a friends sister, her mother was from Iran and her father was half Mexican, half American.

don't ya love Biographic Leverage.
posted by clavdivs at 10:01 AM on April 17, 2003

But, Miguel, the US is one of the most dangerous places to live:

Dangerous Countries
Note: The following list is arranged in alphabetical order and does not rank the level of danger of any particular country. Neither does it indicate the level of danger in one country with respect to another.

Angola
Balkans
Colombia
Cote D'Ivoire
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Israel
Nigeria
Pakistan
Philippines
South Africa
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Zimbabwe
posted by five fresh fish at 10:01 AM on April 17, 2003

I'm not surprised Brazil showed up on those lists, as they have a reputation for having absolutely stunning women. I've met three Brazilian women in my life. One was pretty attractive (although she was a friend's younger sister, and I'm not about to cross that border) but the other two were horrendous. Bad luck I guess, or maybe the hot ones stay down there, on the beaches, wearing....oh man, I need a vacation.

All one has to do is get off the plane in Dallas to confirm that TEXAS is the country with the most beautiful women.

Fake blonde hair, fake boobs, pretty much like the women in SoCal but with twang and a lesser incidence of bulemia. I live here and I haven't seen anything that I haven't seen other places. YMMV of course.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:12 AM on April 17, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

3. United Kingdom


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. . . . .phew.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 10:13 AM on April 17, 2003

Well, I wouldn't take much stock in their lists if they can't even get the G8 Membership List correct.

Here's the correct list.
posted by smcniven at 10:54 AM on April 17, 2003

HIV list is astounding.
posted by th3ph17 at 11:50 AM on April 17, 2003

The HIV prevalence list is the single most disturbing thing on that site. Second most is the one on "military expenditure". It takes the next 14 entries on the list combined to outspend (barely) the country in the number one position.
posted by xiffix at 12:17 PM on April 17, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

Argentina... hands down!
posted by Witty at 12:18 PM on April 17, 2003

Mexican women are the most beautiful. They just don't enter beauty contests, I guess.
posted by Holden at 12:30 PM on April 17, 2003

The U.S. spends more on the military than the next 13 countries combined.
posted by Phatty Lumpkin at 12:50 PM on April 17, 2003

Libreville in Gabon is among the most expensive cities only because the list is slanted towards first-world visitors and expats who expect to live in the manner to which they're accustomed. Basically the issue is that they produce effectively nothing that we would term consumer goods, nor do they import them in quantity as there is no domestic market for them. So the price reflects the fact that everything you take for granted is flown in in small quantities. Unlike, say, Tokyo or London, Libreville would be a dirt cheap place to live if you live like the natives.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:53 PM on April 17, 2003

Somehow they don't manage to get the US into the top ten of countries national debts (even though it's an order of magnitude bigger than anyone elses), so I can't say I believe any of it.
posted by daveg at 1:02 PM on April 17, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

Hmph. Inquiring minds want to know Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Men. Google-Fu is just giving me celeb fan sites and porn.

not that the latter is a bad thing, but I am sort of curious. Would they use the (over-muscly, tanning-bed broiled, steriod-shriveled) Mr. Universe results for this one or what?
posted by romakimmy at 1:10 PM on April 17, 2003

Um, Slovenia the world suicide hyperpower? I beg to differ, looks like Lithuania is *1* to me.

After many years of searching, the question of why I'm goth has been answered.
posted by qDot at 2:59 PM on April 17, 2003

Norway isn't represented in the top ten? I remember watching the opening ceremony of the last winter olympics and noticing that the entire female Norwegian contingent were drop dead gorgeous. If your jocks look like SI models, you should crack the top ten.
posted by Devils Slide at 3:33 PM on April 17, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

Anywhere peroxide and silicone aren't.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 4:12 PM on April 17, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

Thailand.... for so many reasons.
posted by cmacleod at 4:29 PM on April 17, 2003

I noticed Canada is slipping below Norway and Sweden on the quality of life type charts. Though we do spend more on the military than they do, so I can think of a pretty easy way to get back our coveted #1 spot...
posted by Space Coyote at 5:03 PM on April 17, 2003

Second most is the one on "military expenditure". It takes the next 14 entries on the list combined to outspend (barely) the country in the number one position.

Not that this is going to be much of a mitigating factor, but I really wish there was a secondary list of military expenditure as a percentage of total government spending, or per capita, for that matter. I think that last criteria might give you a slightly different list.

There's an interesting analysis here on military spending as a percent of budget and GDP. And this widely reprinted report has some macro figures. It does say, "Developed countries spent an average $517 per capita [on military expenditures] in 1999, 10 times the average $51 spent in developing countries."
posted by pzarquon at 5:19 PM on April 17, 2003

Korea has large numbers of quite breathtakingly lovely women, and a completely abysmal standard of living. Not being single any longer, I often find myself wondering what the heck I'm still doing here.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:37 PM on April 17, 2003

Some of their measures for these things seem a bit arbitrary - Miss Universe winners? carbon output for most polluted?

FWIW, Seoul was recently found to have the worst air quality of any OECD city, including Mexico City, Rome and Moscow. Hooray for us.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:41 PM on April 17, 2003

Well, I wanted to move to Scandinavia anyway . . .

It's interesting, too - you can see the sort of common groupings here:

Anglo-Saxon (Germany, UK, US) - rich, capitalist, largely religious

and #2 in a lot of these . . .

Scandinavian/Other-free (Canada, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Finland) - very high quality of life, and in real life they tend to have far more freedoms of the kind geeks are interested in than the Anglo-Saxons. Especially lately.
posted by Ryvar at 8:24 PM on April 17, 2003

very high quality of life

Translation: very high taxes.
posted by hama7 at 9:16 PM on April 17, 2003

Ah, but it's a fair and effective taxation policy, which ensures better distribution of wealth between those with a high income and those with a low income, which means national health care and free education. You want to make one in Quality of Life, you have to pay for it. Yay, welfare capitalism.
posted by y2karl at 10:04 PM on April 17, 2003

The Miss Universe organization is based in the United States while the Miss World competion is a United Kingdom based event. The United States owns the most Miss Universe titles and the United Kingdom has the third most Miss World titles. This may be mere coincidence.(sic)

Ah, the subtle art of understated sarcasm.
posted by spazzm at 10:43 PM on April 17, 2003

Well, east coast girls are hip. I really dig those styles they wear. And the southern girls, with the way they talk, they knock me out when I'm down there. The midwest farmer's daughters really make you feel all right! And the northern girls, with the way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night.

The west coast has the sunshine, and the girls all get so tanned. I dig a french bikini on Hawaii island dolls by a palm tree in the sand. I've been all around this great, big world, and I've seen all kinds of girls. Yeah, but I couldn't wait to get back in the States, back to the cutest girls in the world.

I wish they all could be California girls.
posted by crunchland at 11:29 PM on April 17, 2003

Nothing is fair about "redistribution" of wealth. Which is better: quality education and health care at a price or; mandatory, tax bankrolled, inefficient heath care and education beaurocracies for which one has to work half one's life (or more) to support? How does half a lifetime of indentured servitude equal "free" education? It's paid for all right.

Socialist economies are just so darn vibrant and dynamic, you'd think everybody just ignored what happened in Russia, China, and the other failures. Another thread.

The nation of Uzbekistan is widely rumoured to possess the most beautiful women, but corroborating evidence is difficult to obtain, and at this time such reports can neither be confirmed nor denied.
posted by hama7 at 11:30 PM on April 17, 2003

Which is better: quality education and health care at a price or; mandatory, tax bankrolled, inefficient heath care and education beaurocracies for which one has to work half one's life (or more) to support?

... the place where adults pass the most time and submit to the closest control is at work. Thus, without even entering into the question of the world economy's ultimate dictation within narrow limits of everybody's productive activity, it's apparent that the source of the greatest direct duress experienced by the ordinary adult is not the state but rather the business that employs him. Your foreman or supervisor gives you more or-else orders in a week than the police do in a decade.

Bob Black, The Libertarian As Conservative

Indentured servitude, eh? Around here we call that a job--when you can get one. Freedom is for the independently wealthy.

Welfare capitalism is not socialism and Norway does rank number one in Quality of Life no matter how you split it. So there. But as you say, another time...
posted by y2karl at 12:33 AM on April 18, 2003

The laziest *and* the booziest? Screw Disneyland, I'm movin' to Portugal!
posted by arto at 2:25 AM on April 18, 2003

The WHO has issued a "Healthy Life Expectancy" Ranking and Japan is Number One in the New ‘Healthy Life’ System. The full list.
Other interesting rankings:
- Press Freedom Index.
- Olympic Medals per Capita
- Military expenditures as % of GDP
- Alcohol consumption [PDF document]
- Economic and social statistics on the nations of the world, with partcular reference to children's well-being.
- The Principal City Agglomerations of the World. From the City Population website.
As for the highly subjective "Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?" question, if one means "gorgeous women as a percentage of the population" my very personal vote, from my reasonably limited experience, goes to all the former Yugoslav republics.
(Turkey is close and I've heard about Venezuela-Colombia of course, but haven't been there to verify).
posted by talos at 5:30 AM on April 18, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

No question, my country: Iceland. Look, we have 2 Miss World titles, but still there are only 280 thousand people on this island.

I've lived in Mexico, Venezuela and the U.S. and I've traveled to Argentina and Brazil. Still, I'm positive there's no place you can find more beautiful women than downtown Reykjavik on a Saturday night :-)
posted by einarorn at 6:49 AM on April 18, 2003

Miss Venezuela 2002. meh. i'd rather have a beer and a fat chick.
posted by car_bomb at 11:16 AM on April 18, 2003

By the way, when did Canada stop being an Anglo-Saxon nation? I mean, I'm ethnically Irish-Scotch-Portugese (to the point of willingly drinking Screech!), but culturally, I'm as Anglicised as tea.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 10:51 PM on April 18, 2003

[acceptable thread-end chattiness, I hope]

Well, as an Anglo-Portuguese with Irish blood myself, that more or less makes us cousins, Pseudoephedrine. :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:01 AM on April 19, 2003

when did Canada stop being an Anglo-Saxon nation?

in the mid 1960's when our non anglo-saxon population jumped from less than 3% to over 30% leading to major cities like toronto having over 54% non anglo-saxon populations (294 cultures, 169 countries represented, 100+ languages spoken) by the mid 1990's. these days when i come across someone as purely irish as i am it's a complete surprise and rarity. hoorah for multicultures...! i love living here. my actual neighborhood is "little portugal" btw.
posted by t r a c y at 12:18 PM on April 19, 2003

Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?
Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?
Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?
Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women?

Gee guys, you sure put a lot of thought and energy into this question. The answer is obvious....it depends on your definition of beautiful-- Doh! Do you like them tall? Dark? Curvacious? Tiny? Blonde? Natural? Unnatural?? If you can all agree that 6 feet in height, blue-eyes, blonde hair, high cheekbones = beauty then we can debate whether it is Norway or Iceland. But if your definition of the word beauty includes the phrase "under 100 lbs," then we better start talking about Thailand.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 2:06 PM on April 19, 2003

tracy> Eh, the emphasis we put on multiculturalism up here is a bit of a dodge. A lot of the immigrants come from parts of the old British Empire (Nigeria, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, etc.), and Canada's method of cherry-picking ensures that we get the richest, most Anglicised members of those societies preferentially. And let's not forget that of those immigrants, 50% end up in Toronto and surrounds, with the majority of the rest going to Vancouver and Montreal.

While I'm as egocentric as the next Torontonian and fully happy to admit that I appreciate having my major gustatory decisions be about whether I'm in the mood for Cambodian-Mexican-Scotch _or_ Cuban-Thai-Somalian fusion, Canada's still "the great white north" in more ways than one.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 7:30 PM on April 19, 2003

Thanks SLG. I didn't know that my answer depended upon what my definition of beauty is. So, after further thought and review, my answer is... oddly enough, Argentina.
posted by Witty at 8:26 AM on April 21, 2003