Switzerland ranked as the best country on Earth for quality of life
By Jan de Boer
In an ever-fractured and unstable world, it’s good to know that amid all the upheaval, some things remain constant. According to the latest Human Progress Index (HPI), Switzerland boasts the best quality of life in the world.
Human Progress Index 2025
To create the HPI, CEOWORLD magazine compared 196 countries around the world by the quality of life they offer their residents. In this case, 23 different indicators were used to rank nations through three main categories. These were:
- Stability: Economic growth, taxes, life expectancy, job security, household income, and cost of rent.
- Satisfaction: Safety, happiness level, quality of government, public transport, education and healthcare, and corruption perception.
- Balance: Human rights, civil liberties, political rights, work-life balance, political and religious freedom, gender equality and environmental protections.
Experts used data from various sources to rank each country out of 100 in each category. A weighted average was then used to create the final score.
Switzerland in a class of its own on quality of life
This year, the report named Switzerland as the best country to live in for quality of life. The alpine nation beat out traditional living standards rivals Norway and Iceland, who occupied the rest of the podium.
The country’s high score was attributed to better-than-average ratings across practically all the categories analysed. Economic factors were particularly highly valued when it came to life in the alpine nation, with the country performing better than most others in Europe.
Another interesting conclusion was found when it came to stress. According to CEOWORLD’s own Stress Index, people in Switzerland are the fourth least stressed globally.
Life in Switzerland: Easy to live in, hard to settle in
The latest study highlights the ongoing duality of living in Switzerland. While the country is often rated as offering new arrivals an extremely high quality of life and salary, socially, the country is a tough egg to crack.
This was borne out in the latest Expat Insider study by InterNations. In it, internationals rated Switzerland as one of the most challenging places in the world to settle and establish local connections. These poor scores meant the country only ranked 34th out of 53 nations analysed, despite the quality of life on offer.
In contrast to Switzerland, the HPI found that the worst countries for living standards were those wracked by humanitarian crisis and conflict. For 2025, Somalia was rated as the worst place to live, followed by South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
10 best countries in the world for quality of life
In all, here are the 10 best nations for quality of life, according to the HPI:
- Switzerland
- Norway
- Iceland
- Hong Kong
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Germany
- Ireland
- Singapore
- Australia
For more information, check out the official website.
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Jan studied History at the University of York and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Sheffield. Though born in York, Jan has lived most of his life in Zurich and has worked as a journalist, writer and editor since 2016.
While he has plunged head-first back into life in Switzerland since returning to the country in 2020, he still enjoys a taste of home at pub quizzes and karaoke nights.Read more