Denmark has been declared the best place in the world to live while the Central African Republic is the worst, according to a new study.

新研究显示，丹麦是全世界最宜居的国家，而中非共和国则是最不适宜居住的国家。

Australia ranks ninth out of a total of 128 countries, the United Kingdom comes in 12th while the United States is 18th.

在这次统计的128个国家中，澳大利亚名列第九，英国名列十二，而美国名列十八。

The results were revealed in the 2017 Social Progress Index which measures 50 indicators¹ of what life is like for people living in different nations around the world.

该结果是根据2017年社会进步指数得出的，该指数综合了50个指标，来衡量世界不同国家人民的生活状况。

Those indicators are broken down into three categories - basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing and opportunity.

这些指标可以被分为三类：人的基本需求、幸福的基础和机遇。

Basic human needs includes data on access to medication, sanitation², shelter and security; wellbeing takes in information on education, access to communications and environment; while opportunity covers rights, freedoms, tolerance³, and access to higher education.

人的基本需求包括获得药物治疗、公共卫生、住所和安全保障等方面的数据；幸福基础包括教育、通信和环境等方面的条件，而机遇则涵盖了权利、自由、宽容和获得高等教育的机会。

Europe was the continent which fared the best, comprising 11 of the 14 countries deemed to be making 'very high social progress' - the other nations in that category were New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

欧洲是表现最好的大陆，“社会进步水平很高”的14个国家中有11个是欧洲国家，其他几个分别为新西兰、澳大利亚和加拿大。

North American and South American nations were largely ranked as having 'good progress', according to the study, while Asian countries were making modest gains.

根据该研究，北美和南美的多数国家被评为“社会进步水平较高”，而亚洲国家则是“进步水平中等”。

African countries fared the worst of all those for which data was available, making up six of the seven countries deemed to have 'very low progress'.

在这些能收集到数据的国家中，非洲国家的评估结果最差，7个“社会进步水平很低”的国家中有6个是非洲国家。

There is more bad news for the continent when compared to previous studies, as two African nations - the Central African Republic and Republic of Congo - recorded the largest drop between the first survey in 2014 and 2017.

和先前的研究结果相比，这次非洲大陆的情况更糟。相较于2014年的第一次调查数据，两个非洲国家——中非共和国和刚果共和国——2017年的调查排名降幅最大。

Nicaragua and Hungary were also included in that category.

尼加拉瓜和匈牙利也属于此列。

It was not all doom⁴ and gloom, however, as African countries also made up the majority of the most-improved nations.

不过，也不全是坏消息。在改善最多的国家中，非洲国家也占到了多数。

Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria were all singled out for praise.

科特迪瓦、多哥、塞拉利昂、加纳和尼日利亚的进步都值得赞赏。

There was also good news for Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, which also saw large improvements over the three years.

尼泊尔、孟加拉国、缅甸和吉尔吉斯斯坦在过去三年间也有很大改善。

Some of the most troubled countries in the world - such as Venezuela, Iraq and Syria - were not included in the study because data could not be collected.

世界上最困顿的几个国家——如委内瑞拉、伊拉克和叙利亚——没有被统计进去，因为无法收集到数据。

Overall the world has made progress since 2014, the report authors noted⁵, saying that access to communications and education have increased rapidly, though noted that personal rights, personal safety, and tolerance had stagnated⁶ or decreased.

研究报告作者称，自2014年以来，世界总体来看是进步的，人们接受教育和获得通信的机会大大增加，不过报告也指出，个人权益、人身安全和容忍度陷入停滞甚至倒退。

TOP 10 NATIONS

社会最进步的十个国家

1) Denmark, 90.57/100

第一名：丹麦 90.57分

2) Finland, 90.53

第二名：芬兰 90.53分

-3) Iceland, 90.27

并列第三名：冰岛 90.27分

-3) Norway, 90.27

并列第三名：挪威 90.27分

5) Switzerland, 90.10

第五名：瑞士 90.10分

6) Canada, 89.84

第六名：加拿大 89.84分

7) Netherlands, 89.82

第七名：荷兰 89.82分

8) Sweden, 89.66

第八名：瑞典 89.66分

-9) Australia, 89.30

并列第九名：澳大利亚 89.30分

-9) New Zealand, 89.30

并列第九名：新西兰 89.30分