“If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous, and upwardly mobile life?”

That’s the question that Newsweek magazine set out to answer in a new survey of “national well-being,” which ranked 100 countries around the world on factors that included education, health, economic competitiveness, political environment, and overall quality of life.

While Canada didn’t come out at the top of the list — that honor went to Finland — Canada did rank a respectable #7. And only two points separated Canada from the highest score.

Last year, in an HSBC survey on the expat experience, Canada topped the list of the best places in the world for expats to live.

In the Newsweek report, Canada scored highest in education, ranking #2 in the world, with a 99% literacy rate and with the population averaging 16.9 years of schooling.

That’s consistent with a recent College Board report which found that Canadians rank among world’s most educated people.

The Globe & Mail also reported on yet another education survey — this one from the Council of Education Ministers — which found that “Canadians are better educated than they were a decade ago and have some of the highest rates of post-secondary attendance in the developed world.”

The U.S., in contrast, ranked 26th on Newsweek‘s education scale.

Overall, the U.S. came in at #11, which Newsweek bemoaned in an accompanying article entitled, “How to Understand the American Decline,” which noted that “on any number of indicators…, the United States is not the worldbeater it was a decade ago.”

The complete Newsweek list of the world’s “best” countries includes the following top 10:

1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark

Vancouver skyline photo ©Carolyn B. Heller