Norway the best place to live: UN

Norway the best place to live: UN

The United Nations has named oil-rich Norway as the country with the best quality of life, followed by Australia and NZ, while Asia has made the biggest strides in recent decades.

The UN's annual A-to-Z of global wealth, poverty, health and education highlighted, however, that it is becoming ever more difficult to break into the rich club of nations.

Norway - with its 81 years of life expectancy and average annual income of $US58,810 ($A58,625) - has topped the Human Development Index (HDI) for all but two years since 2001.

It doesn't come in first place in any individual category - average income in Liechtenstein, for example, is a wallet-busting $US81,011 ($A80,757) and Japan's life expectancy is 83.6 years - but Norway's all-round performance gives it superiority in the 20th annual rankings on the UN Development Program (UNDP).

Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Ireland, in order, also made the top five.

Zimbabwe came in last among the 169 nations ranked, behind Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo.