Greece ranks the best place to live in the Balkans, Albania only the second worst

TIRANA, Jan 19؇reece, Croatia and Bulgaria were ranked as the best three of the Balkan states to live in by the 2010 Quality of Life Index, published by the International Living Magazine, which ranks and rates 194 countries around the world.
“This isn’t about best value, necessarily,” the magazine wrote in its introduction to the index, which is topped by France. “It’s about the places in the world where the living is, simply put, great.” Countries are ranked according to nine categories: cost of living, culture and leisure, the economy, environment, freedom, safety and risk, health, infrastructure and climate.
The top 10 positions are dominated by European countries, but also include the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Greece, the leader from the Balkan countries, received an overall score of 72 points (out of 100), with 27 other countries scoring better or the same. Croatia, with an overall score of 70, was placed in 37th position.
The other Balkan states which were evaluated scored as follows: Bulgaria – 69 points, Romania – 65 points, FYR of Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovina – 63 points, Turkey – 61 points.
As a point of reference, the best country to live in, France, scored 82 points, while the worst – Somalia, scored 30 points.
Albania ranked 59th overall together with nine other countries. The country scored best in climate, health, and environment categories with 89, 74, and 74 points respectively.
However, despite its impressive economic growth in the recent years, perhaps the highest average in Europe, Albania continues to lag far behind in terms of economic and infrastructure standards, scoring 45 and 36 points in the respective categories.