Malta ranks high in quality of life league

Malta has scored remarkably high in a quality of life survey conducted by a company that promotes alternative countries to people seeking to settle elsewhere.

The company, International Living, gave Malta full marks (100 per cent) for freedom and safety. The island also got very high scores for climate (95 per cent), health (89 per cent) and the environment (84 per cent) on the main publication of International Living.

Overall, the country ranked 15th, with 76 per cent, together with Liechtenstein, Denmark and Spain. Notably, Malta placed higher than countries such as the UK, Portugal, Sweden and Japan.

Besides the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all the countries in the top 15 are European. The highest-scoring country was France, with 82 per cent overall.

The company, set up some 30 years ago, promotes mostly exotic locations to people who would consider moving from places such as the US and the UK to live in countries where life is easier and cheaper.

In the economy and infrastructure categories, Malta was awarded 53 and 52 per cent respectively. The cost of living score for Malta stood at 63 per cent.

The survey gathered information from official sources, including government websites, the World Health Organisation and The Economist.

Once the data is collected, the company consults newspaper and magazine editors all over the world to see what they have to say about the publication's findings.