This isn't meant to be a real analysis, since determining the best place to live may be in the same realm of difficulty as determining the best person to marry or the best career to pursue. However, there are some interesting stats available that one might apply to help determine where you might want to escape to someday.
There are eight top 10 rankings below. I counted up how often each of these countries appears in those top 10 lists.
7 H IBEIDP Norway
7 HLIB IDP Sweden
6 IBEIDP Finland
6 HLIB DP Iceland
6 HLIB DP Switzerland
5 BEIDP Denmark
5 H BE DP Netherlands
4 HL E D Australia
4 HLI I Japan
3 LIB Hong Kong
3 H E P Ireland
3 IBE South Korea
2 H E Canada
2 I I Czech Republic
2 HL France
2 E D New Zealand
1 I Bosnia and Herzegovina
1 P Estonia
1 I Hungary
1 L Israel
1 E Greece
1 D Luxembourg
1 L Macau
1 B Monaco
1 I Singapore
1 I Slovakia
1 L Spain
1 I Ukraine
Human Development Index
Norway 0.971 (▲ 1)
Australia 0.970 (▲ 2)
Iceland 0.969 (▼ 2)
Canada 0.966 (▼ 1)
Ireland 0.965 (▬)
Netherlands 0.964 (▬)
Sweden 0.963 (▬)
France 0.961 (▲ 3)
Switzerland 0.960 (▬)
Japan 0.960 (▬)
Life expectancy
1 Japan 82.6 79.0 86.1
2 Hong Kong ( PRC) 82.2 79.4 85.1
3 Iceland 81.8 80.2 83.3
4 Switzerland 81.7 79.0 84.2
5 Australia 81.2 78.9 83.6
6 Spain 80.9 77.7 84.2
7 Sweden 80.9 78.7 83.0
8 Israel 80.7 78.5 82.8
9 Macau ( PRC) 80.7 78.5 82.8
10 France (metropolitan) 80.7 77.1 84.1
Infant mortality rate
1 Iceland 2.9 3.9
2 Singapore 3.0 4.1
3 Japan 3.2 4.2
4 Sweden 3.2 4.0
5 Norway 3.3 4.4
6 Hong Kong 3.7 4.7
7 Finland 3.7 4.7
8 Czech Republic 3.8 4.8
9 Switzerland 4.1 5.1
10 South Korea 4.1 4.8
Total broadband penetration
N/A Monaco N/A N/A N/A 38.0% 93.8% N/A Dec. 2007
26 Denmark 21.3% 9.7% 3.3% 34.3% N/A 1,866,306 Jun. 2007
13 Netherlands 20.4% 12.7% 0.4% 33.5% N/A 5,470,000 Jun. 2007
23 Switzerland 20.5% 9.3% 0.9% 30.7% N/A 2,322,577 Jun. 2007
7 South Korea 10.1% 10.6% 9.2% 29.9% N/A 15,709,771 Jun. Q1, 2009
31 Norway 22.7% 4.5% 2.5% 29.8% N/A 1,388,047 Jun. 2007
47 Iceland 29.0% 0.0% 0.8% 29.8% N/A 90,622 Jun. 2007
— Hong Kong 15.4% N/A N/A 29.1% 89.9% 2,046,000 Dec. 2007
30 Finland 24.4% 3.7% 0.8% 28.8% N/A 1,518,900 Jun. 2007
21 Sweden 17.9% 5.6% 5.0% 28.6% N/A 2,596,000 Jun. 2007
Education Index
1= Australia ▬ 0.993
1= Denmark ▬ 0.993
1= Finland ▬ 0.993
1= New Zealand ▬ 0.993
5 Canada ▬ 0.991
6 Norway ▼ 0.989
7 South Korea ▲ 0.988
8= Ireland ▼ 0.985
8= Netherlands ▼ 0.985
10= Greece ▲ 0.980
Income Equality (UN Gini)
Denmark 8.1 4.3 24.7 12.0 2000 est. 24 2005 -
Japan 4.5 3.4 24.9 4.5 1993 38.1 2002 -
Sweden 6.2 4 25 6.2 2000 23 2005 -
Czech Republic 5.2 3.5 25.4 5.2 1996 26 2005 -
Norway 6.1 3.9 25.8 6.0 2000 28 2005 -
Slovakia 6.7 4 25.8 6.7 1996 26 2005 -
Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.4 3.8 26.2 5.5 2001 56.2 2007 -
Finland 5.6 3.8 26.9 5.7 2000 29.5 2007 -
Hungary 5.5 3.8 26.9 5.6 2002 28 2005 -
Ukraine 5.9 4.1 28.1 7.6 2006 31 2006 -
Democracy Index
1 Sweden 9.88 Full democracy Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
2 Norway 9.68 Full democracy Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
3 Iceland 9.65 Full democracy Parliamentary republic and Parliamentary Democracy
4 Netherlands 9.53 Full democracy Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
5 Denmark 9.52 Full democracy Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
6 Finland 9.25 Full democracy Parliamentary republic and Parliamentary Democracy
7 New Zealand 9.19 Full democracy Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
8 Switzerland 9.15 Full democracy Parliamentary republic, Confederation, Semi-direct democracy, Bicameralism
9 Luxembourg 9.10 Full democracy Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
10 Australia 9.09 Full democracy Federalism, Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy, Bicameralism
Press Freedom Index
1 Denmark 0.00 3.50 2.00 5.00 0.50 0.50 1.00 3.00
1 Finland 0.00 2.00 1.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
1 Ireland 0.00 2.00 2.00 0.50 0.50 0.50 2.83 1.00
1 Norway 0.00 1.50 0.75 2.00 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
1 Sweden 0.00 3.00 1.50 4.00 2.00 2.00 1.50 1.50
6 Estonia 0.50 2.00 1.00 2.00 1.50 2.00 2.50
7 Netherlands 1.00 4.00 3.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
7 Switzerland 1.00 3.00 3.00 2.50 0.50 0.50 2.50 4.25
9 Iceland 2.00 1.50 0.75 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
10 Lithuania 2.25 4.00 7.00 6.50 4.50 3.00 2.83
If some of these stats aren't what you're looking for in a country (for example, you may believe The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal's measure of economic freedom is more important than income equality, or the World Bank's ease of doing business is more important than press freedom as measured by Reporters Without Borders), there are some alternatives to suit many tastes:
6 HL EEDB Australia
6 H IBE DB Norway
6 HLIB ED Switzerland
5 BEEDB Denmark
5 LIB E B Hong Kong
5 HLIB D Iceland
5 HLIB D Sweden
4 H EE B Canada
4 IBE D Finland
4 H EE B Ireland
4 H BE D Netherlands
4 EEDB New Zealand
3 HLI Japan
3 I E B Singapore
3 IBE South Korea
2 HL France
2 E B United States
1 E Chile
1 I Czech Republic
1 E Greece
1 L Israel
1 D Luxembourg
1 L Macau
1 B Monaco
1 L Spain
1 B United Kingdom
Index of Economic Freedom
1 Hong Kong 89.7
2 Singapore 86.1
3 Australia 82.6
4 New Zealand 82.1
5 Ireland 81.3
6 Switzerland 81.1
7 Canada 80.4
8 United States 78
9 Denmark 77.9
10 Chile 77.2
Ease of Doing Business Index
1 1 Singapore
2 2 New Zealand
3 3 Hong Kong
4 4 United States
5 6 United Kingdom
6 5 Denmark
7 7 Ireland
8 8 Canada
9 9 Australia
10 10 Norway