BALTIMORE, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- International Living magazine -- a leading resource for helping people live, travel, and prosper overseas -- has released its 26th Annual Quality of Life Index. According to IL's comprehensive analysis, France again offers the greatest Quality of Life of any country, while war-torn Iraq remains in last place.

Despite high taxes, bureaucracy, and a high cost of living, France returns after taking over the top position last year. Even the affordability drawback has its limits. Outside of Paris, the cost of living is significantly lower and livable homes are selling for less than $100,000. France benefited for its best-in-the-world health care system, legendary cultural amenities, and safety.

"France has a good climate, unspoiled countryside, and great health care. And its capital, Paris, is arguably the world's most beautiful and romantic city on earth," said Laura Sheridan, Managing Editor of International Living magazine, who conducted the study. "Add to all this the world-competitive infrastructure and you can understand why we'd name France the world's best place to live."

To produce the annual index, International Living considers nine categories: Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk, and Climate. International Living uses statistics from a number of official government, non-profit, and media sources for much of the number crunching. IL also includes the input from International Living's extensive roster of correspondents from around the world.

The United States -- which had ranked at the top of the charts for an impressive 21 consecutive years until being dethroned in last year's survey -- regained its footing, and climbed back to the number 5 slot from number 7 in last year's survey. The United States' improvement was paced by a significant improvement in its Cost of Living score. The United States' fall in the rankings last year was due to a decline in its Freedom score. That score remains significantly lower than its peer countries at the top of the chart, and is one of the primary reasons it is not higher in the rankings.

Six of the top 10 positions in this year's survey were taken over by European countries. Argentina rose to number 10 in the rankings. Many of the countries that showed the greatest increase from the 2006 International Living study were from Latin America.
  International Living's 2007 Quality of Life Index Highlights:

  Leaders

    1.   France
    2.   Australia
    3.   Netherlands
    4.   New Zealand
    5.   United States

  Bottom Five

    195. Iraq
    194. Somalia
    193. Yemen
    192. Sudan
    191. Afghanistan

  Other Notables

    8.   Italy
    11.  Germany
    22.  Canada
    25.  Mexico
    34.  Panama
    37.  United Kingdom
    108. Cuba
    116. China
    116. Russia

  Other Highs and Lows

  Lowest cost of living: Nauru (it's an island in the Pacific)
  Best Infrastructure: United States
  Most Corrupt: Haiti
  Best for culture: Italy
  Best climate: Zimbabwe
  Best to register a new company: Australia
  Longest life expectancy: Andorra

  Fastest Risers

  Dominican Republic   Up 50 positions
  El Salvador          Up 49 positions
  Vietnam              Up 46 positions
  Botswana             Up 42 positions
  Kuwait               Up 42 positions
  Costa Rica           Up 38 positions

  Falling Behind

  Iran                 Down 43 positions
  Russia               Down 43 positions
  Swaziland            Down 43 positions
  Papua New Guinea     Down 38 positions
  Israel               Down 37 positions