To date, 15 countries allow gay marriage: Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, and New Zealand.
Same-sex marriage is legal in some jurisdictions of Mexico and the United States. Currently, 12 states in the U.S. permit same-sex marriage, while 30 states have amended their constitutions to ban it.
Resource: Pew Research Center: A global snapshot of same-sex marriage
It has been said, that if women participated in the workforce more actively, like their male counterparts, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of those countries would be higher.
However, most countries, including some developed nations do not have policies in place that support women’s participation in the workforce, such as access to education, credit, employment, paid maternity leave or child care.
Countries with the highest economic success for women (measured in terms of equality of pay, degree of inclusion in the workforce, and career advancement), that offer the best policies for supporting women in the workforce include Norway, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Iceland.
Countries with the lowest degree of economic success that have few policies (or none) that support women in the workplace include Chad, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, among others.
Some interesting facts about the success of women in the workplace and the policies in place to support them in certain countries can be seen in the graphic above.
Source: Harvard Business Review: Vision Statement: Women and the Economics of Equality
According to Russian news agency Ria Novosti, Norway has the highest gasoline price among European countries, with a price of 1.90 Euro per liter ( or US $9.475 per gallon at the current exchange rate of 1 Euro = US $1.31). Norway is followed by Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, and Greece.
The lowest gasoline prices are found in Belarus and Kazakhstan, 0.68 Euros and 0.70 Euros per liter, respectively. The average gasoline price for European nations is 1.39 Euros per liter.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure that includes three indicators: life expectancy at birth, level of education attained, and income. The HDI is an alternative to the purely economical GDP, that quantifies economic growth only. Thus, the HDI provide a way to gauge the development of a country. The HDI for 2012 includes 187 countries.
The HDI ranks countries according to their degree of development using a scale from 0 to1, 0 being the least developed and 1 being the most developed country.
In the HDI map above, published by the Brazilian media site Globo.com we find that Norway has a score of 0.955, ranking number one as the most developed country (color green). Norway is followed by Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, among others.
At the other end of the spectrum we find the least developed nations (color purple), including the majority of African nations, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea.
The Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) created the GAIN Index to measure the vulnerability of countries to climate change, combined with how well prepared these countries are to face the global challenges associated with it.
Countries at extreme risk include North Korea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Burundi, Chad, Sudan and Zimbabwe. At the other end of the spectrum, countries with the lowest risk include Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, New Zealand, Norway, to name a few.
For a complete list of countries and index methodology visit: The Global Adaptation Institute: The GAIN Index
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MIT’s Technology Review magazine created a map of the 40 happiest countries in the world, based on research data from Columbia University’s Earth Institute. According to the list, Denmark ranks as the happiest country, followed by Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada. At the bottom of this list are Jamaica, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala and the Czech Republic. Countries not on this list ranked even lower.
For a detailed information concerning the methodology used and sources, see: The Earth Institute – Columbia University: First World Happiness Report Launched at the United Nations
2012 has seen positive and negative changes in freedom of the press around the world. Reporters Without Borders, the largest organization that advocates freedom of the press worldwide, compiles a Press Freedom Index where countries ranking at the top score high in press freedom, and countries at the bottom constitute the most repressive in terms of freedom of information and violence against journalists.
Some countries ranking at the top include Finland, Norway and Estonia. Countries at the bottom include Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan. Countries showing improvements worth noting include Tunisia, South Sudan and Niger. In Latin America, Brazil showed the biggest decline.