The Best in the World
Finland - the best country in the world!
The Failed States Index 2013:
The most failed countries according to FFP:
1. Somalia
2. Congo (D.R.)
3. Sudan
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178. Finland (the best and the most sustainable country in the world)
The Most Liveable City in the World 2011:
The liveable cities index according to Monocle:
1. Helsinki, Finland
2. Zürich, Switzerland
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
Economist Intelligence Unit's (The Economist) Global Liveability Ranking 2011:
The best cities in the World according to EIU:
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
Global Liveability Report 2010 - Most Liveable Cities in the World:
In "Global Liveability Report 2010" by The Economist Intelligence Unit EIU Helsinki is ranked as the world's 6th most liveable city. Factors investigated were stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
The World's Best Country in 2010:
The Newsweek study of education, health, quality of life, economy (economic dynamism) and politics (political environment) ranks the globe's top nations in 2010. Finland ranked the highest overall and also comes in as the best small country, the best high-income country and the best country for education.
The World's Best Countries in 2010 according to the Newsweek Study:
1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
11. United States
12. Germany
13. New Zealand
14. United Kingdom
15. Korea, South
The World's Safest Countries in 2010:
1. Iceland
2. Norway
3. Finland
Source: RealClearWorld
Top Innovative Countries in 2010:
1. Denmark
2. Sweden
3. The United States of America
4. Finland
Source: SmartPlanet
The World's Design Capital in 2012:
Helsinki was chosen as the World Design Capital 2012. Read more details about Finnish designers here.
The World's 3rd Most Prosperous Country in 2010 (The 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index):
According to Legatum Institute, Finland is the 3rd most prosperous country globally. More details at http://www.prosperity.com/country.aspx?id=FI.
In 2009 Finland was the number one. However, now Legatum has new criteria. According to these new criteria Finland would have been the 4th most prosperous country in 2009.
The World's Most Prosperous Country in 2009:
According to Legatum Institute, Finland is the most prosperous country in the world. More details at http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx.
The World's 2nd Best Country in Global Gender Gap Report 2009:
Finland's has the world's 2nd smallest equality gap between men and women according to Global Gender Gap Index 2009 by World Economic Forum WEF. More details at http://www.weforum.org/gendergap.
The World's Most Cleanest and Most Livable Country 2007
According to the large survey of Reader's Digest Finland is the most cleanest and greenest country in the world. Also the world's 2nd best quality of natural water was in Finland. Norway won that subcategory but Finland was the winner of the survey overall. Sources of the survey were Human Development Index (UN 2006) and Environmental Sustainability Index (World Economics Forum, Yale University & Columbia University 2005). More details at http://www.rd.com/content/best-places-to-live-green/?trkid=rdmagkw_0710 and http://www.rd.com/greencountries.
The Top Ten Nations in the World to Visit 2007 & the Most Eccentric Place to Stay in the World
The Lonely Planet Blue List writes that Finland is among ”the Top Ten Nations in the World to Visit in 2007”: ”Cool zone of design in Helsinki, surrounded by remote wilderness areas – Finland is a breath of fresh air on a European adventure”.
The Kemi SnowCastle, the Mammut Snow Hotel", in Northern Finland is listed as ”the Most Eccentric Place to Stay in the World”. Besides, Aurora Borealis, the northern lights, were described as ”the World's Most Amazing Natural Phenomenon”.
The World's best hotels:
Hotel Kämp http://www.hotelkamp.com/ in Helsinki has been listed as one of the world's best hotels by many travel specialists:
-Condé Nast Traveller (UK): one of the "100 best hotels in the World" in 2003, 2004, 2005
-Condé Nast Traveler (US): "the World's Best Places to Stay", Gold List in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
-Starwood Luxury Collection: "Hotel of the Year" in 2005
-Travel+Leisure Magazine: "the World's Best Hotels for Value" or "500 Best Hotels in the World" in 2004, 2005, 2006
-European Business Magazine: one of the "Top 20 Business Hotels" in 2005
-Global Traveller Magazine: "the Best Hotel in Europe" in 2007
This hotel is also recommended by the bestseller book 1000 Places To See Before You Die.
See also http://www.famoushotels.org/hotels/109 .
Warning: This is the most expensive hotel in Finland!
The best new hotel in the world in 2006:
Hotel Klaus K (Helsinki, Design Hotel, http://www.klausk.com) according to The World Hotel Award.
Scandinavian Travel Award 2004 (by German travel specialists): The best tourism product in Scandinavia
1. prize: Kristina Cruises http://www.kristinacruises.com/index.php?&lang=en
(cruises in West Africa, on the Mediterranean, on the Arctic Sea, on the Baltic Sea, the Czar's Route from Finnish archipelago to the blue Lake Saimaa, an old styled but renewed Finnish ship)
2. prize: Astrid Lindgren World in Sweden
3. prize: Hotel & Igloo Village Kakslauttanen http://www.kakslauttanen.fi and http://www.travel.fi/int/kakslauttanen/ in Finnish Lapland
(glass & ice igloos, sleep in your own bed and see the northern lights or the midnight sun, also Finnish Quality Travel Award 2005)
Scandinavian Travel Award 2005 (by German travel specialists): The best tourism product in Scandinavia: The best Scandinavian travel destination
1. Helsinki (the capital of Finland)
The US magazine Dream World Cruise Destinations 2005:
Helsinki got awards in two categories: Most Improved Destination, Destination with Best Tour Guides
The World's safest cities according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting in 2005:
1 = Luxembourg 122.5 points
2 = Helsinki (the capital of Finland), Bern, Geneva, Zürich 120 points
More details at http://www.mercerhr.com .
The best airlines in the World and in Europe:
The users of Amanda Internet Portal (open only for travel business professionals) made choices in June 2001.
-The best airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair, 2 = SAS, 3 = Lufthansa
-The best airline in the world: 1 = Thai Airways International, 2 = Finnair, 3 = Singapore Airlines
The Travel News Magazine by travel specialist gave prizes in 2004:
-The best airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair (2nd prize in the whole world), 2 = British Airways
Grand Travel Awards 2005 by the Travel News Magazine:
-The best airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair
-The world's best intercontinental airline: 1 = Thai Airways, 2 = Finnair
The Guardian and Observer newspaper group's prizes (over 22,000 readers responded to this survey) in 2004:
-The best short-haul airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair, 2 = Jet2, 3 = Air Berlin
The World's safest airlines in 1973-2004 according to Aero International Magazine http://www.aerointernational.de : Finnair, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways.
The best airline in Europe in 2005 (the Capital Magazine, Germany):
1 = Finnair
The best airline (service, comfort on board, ground services) for short and medium haul in 2005 and 2006 (http://www.travelchannel.de, Germany):
1 = Finnair
The best airline in convenience in 2005 (http://www.arukikita.com, the Japanese travel guide):
1 = Finnair
The World's best theme parks for children in 2005:
The list is based on the survey by the British Independent on Sunday.
1 = Disney World Resort, Orlando, the USA
2= Europa Park, Freiburg, Germany
3 = Disneyland Hong Kong
4 = Moominworld, http://www.muumimaailma.fi, Naantali, Finland
Moominworld also got the Golden Pony Award 2007 by the Games & Parks Industry Magazine. "Moominworld is welcoming, well themed and full of educational contents", the Jury says.
Other awards:
IATA's Global Airport Monitor Survey 2001 is based on the opinions of over 90 000 passengers. The airport of Helsinki (Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport) got three prizes:
1. The best airport in Europe
2. The best airport in the world in the category of airports under 15 million passengers
3. The 3rd best airport in the world in the category of all airports (1 = Singapore Changi, 2 = Sydney Kingsford Smith, 3 = Helsinki-Vantaa)
Helsinki-Vantaa has been chosen (by IATA) as the best airport in the world for four times. In 2005 Helsinki-Vantaa was chosen as the world´s best airport of its size in the international AETRA Survey by IATA and ACI.
Airport World Magazine has given Airport Service Excellence Award for Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
World Architecture magazine has voted the Finnish Embassy in Berlin the best new building in the world in 2001. It represent the modern Finnish architecture.
United Nations Development Programme 2001 says that Finland is the best country in the world in using and developing today's new technology. The USA is 2nd, Sweden 3rd and Japan 4th on the list. There are more internet connections per person in Finland than anywhere else in the world. Mobile phones are also very common in Finland because Finland is the home country of Nokia. See http://www.undp.org/hdr2001/ .
The World Economic Forum rated Finland as the global leader in information technology. Finland got the highest score on the group's global information technology report in 2003. The USA was rated second and Singapore third. For more details click http://www.weforum.org .
The OECD programme for international student assesment says that Finnish teenage schoolchildren perform better than any others in mathematics and reading. Finland was the only nation placed in the top five in all of the tree disciplines that were assessed in PISA (2000 and 2003). See http://www.pisa2006.helsinki.fi .
The Newsweek magazine says that Finland is the best country in the world to study (the world's best education). More details at http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/education/best.htm .
The Financial Times has chosen the world's most respected companies 2001. Nokia (the mobile phone producer) from Finland got the 7th place. For more details see http://specials.ft.com/wmr2001/index.html and http://specials.ft.com/wmr2001/FT3M3WW95VC.html .
PS. Nokia is a small town near the city of Tampere, Finland. See http://www.nokiankaupunki.fi/matkailu/foreign_visitors/. The roots of Nokia Corporation lie on the Nokia River which gave the name Nokia.
Finland is the least corrupt nation in the world (Transparency International, Global Corruption Report). In 2004 Finland was rated the most honest (for the 5th successing year) in a survey of corruption in 120 countries. More details at http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/ and http://www.transparency.org/cpi/index.html .
WEF ranked the business environment in Finland the best in the world in 2001. WEF says that Finland is the most competitive nation in the world and IMD says that Finland is the most competitive nation in Europe and the third most competitive in the world in 2001.
ESI 2002 ranking says that Finland's place is at the top of World Economic Forum's Environmental Sustainability Index.
An United Nations (UN) report (published on March 5th, 2003) ranks 122 countries on the quality of their water supplies. According to this UN water report Finnish water is the purest in the world. Canada became 2nd and New Zealand was the 3rd one. Surprisingly, Belgium comes bottom of the heap. More details on http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/03/05032003173611.asp and http://www.un.org .
See also Finland Diary by the Washington Post: http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/finlanddiary/ .
See also film director Aki Kaurismäki's awards, please.
Women in Finland
Finnish women were first in Europe and second in the whole world to gain the right to vote in 1906. Besides, women also got the right to take part in elections as nominees!
Only a couple of countries in the world have had a woman as President. Finland is one of them. According to the United Nations Finland is the 5th best country in the world for women.
Finnish females have also hold senior posts including Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament, Defence Minister, National Bank Governor etc.
For more details see http://www.suomi-neito.net/eneito.html (Finnish Maiden).