US slides down list for best countries where to be born

If you were a baby born today, where would you want to be born?

My money would say the United States, but, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which analyzes industries and countries, babies are better off being born in 15 other countries. Switzerland is No. 1.

The Economist Magazine explained its methodology:

“Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys — how happy people say they are — to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too.

“In all, the index takes 11 statistically significant indicators into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on policies and the state of the world economy.”

Even Canada beats us. And this doesn’t take into account future obligations our government will be paying. Another big part of these measurements is political freedoms. When taking that into account, it’s no wonder America ranks 16th. The Economist Intelligence Unit did this back in 1988 as well. Back then, America topped the list.

But in 2013 it’s a different story.

Here are the top five countries:

1. Switzerland

2. Australia

3. Norway

4. Sweden

5. Denmark

The U.S. is tied with Germany.