The world's happiest places to live

In a photo finish to rival this year's Melbourne Cup, Australia was ranked behind Norway by a hair's breadth by the United Nations.

The UN's human development index had Australia at 0.93 - on a scale of 0 to 1 - a cool 0.01 behind number one nation Norway.

The two countries have managed to retain their positions at the top of the rankings, after also taking out title last year.

On life expectancy we're doing just fine, with an average life span of 82 years - behind only Japan's 83.

We're also faring much better than some of the countries we traditionally compare ourselves to. For example, when it comes to education, Australians tend to spend at least 12 years in studying, while Britons have an average of just nine years.

Comparatively, the United States also performs poorly when it comes to income equality and health care.

Meanwhile, at the bottom end of the scale with 0.29 is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where citizens have a life expectancy of just 48 years and the 60 percent of the population is living below the poverty line.

Children attend school for an average of just 3.5 years maternal mortality rates are high, with 670 women dying for every 100,000 live births.

In fact, the 10 countries that place last in the 2011 HDI are all in sub-Saharan Africa: Guinea, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Chad, Mozambique, Burundi, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The UN says these nations still suffer from inadequate incomes, limited schooling opportunities, and lower life expectancies due to deaths from preventable and treatable diseases such as malaria and AIDS.

In many, these problems are compounded by situations of armed conflict.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the lowest ranking country, more than three million people died from warfare and conflict-linked illness in recent years.

The top five places to live 1. Norway 2. Australia 3. The Netherlands 4. United States 5. New Zealand
 

The bottom five places to live

1. The Democratic Republic of Congo

2. Niger

3. Burundi

4. Mozambique

5. Chad

Source: heraldsun