Britain slips to 17th place in the quality of life league table

The UK is now only 17th in the international league table, a fall of two places from last year.

Norway remains the best place to live, according to the authoritative research, followed by Iceland and Australia.

Britain shares 17th position with Italy, one place behind France.

The research is based on the United Nations' Human Development Index, which looks at adult literacy, life expectancy and income levels.

It is intended to give a broader picture of a country than just the size of its economy. Britain has the fifth biggest economy in the world, after the United States, Japan, Germany and China.

However, per head of population, the British are only the 16th richest, with £18,043 per head, compared to sixthplaced Ireland at £24,412 and superwealthy Luxembourg at £38,567 per head.

The research is revealed in the Economist's Pocket World in Figures, an annual look into 200 categories covering 183 countries.

It shows that Britain is one of the world leaders in crime figures. It has 9,767 recorded crimes per 100,000 population, behind New Zealand's 11,152 and Finland's 10,243. South Africa, for all its lawless reputation, is in eighth place with 7,967 crimes recorded.

One area where the UK beats everyone else is in spending on music CDs and downloads, at £18 per person - although many will feel this is because CDs cost more here than elsewhere.

Britain is also one of the world leaders in house prices, up 196 per cent in the decade to 2006 to become the third highest on the planet. Only South Africa, up 351 per cent, and Ireland, up 253 per cent, have outstripped us.

Despite our national obsession with television, Britain is only joint 13th in TV ownership with 98.3 sets per 100 households. But mobile phones outnumber people - there are 109.8 for every 100 people.

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Out of the industrial countries, Britain has the third highest number of asylum applications at 30,800, beaten only by France and the U.S.

When it comes to carbon emissions we are in eighth place, producing 569.1million tonnes - dwarfed by the 4,816million tonnes of the U.S.

In terms of life expectancy, by 2010 the average Briton will live to 79.4 years, only the 22nd highest in the world.

The tiny mountain country of Andorra has the highest expectancy at 83.

For a place that coined the term "lager lout", the UK does not feature among the top 23 countries for sales of beer per head - led by the Czech Republic - or for cigarette smoking, which is headed by Greece.

But the UK's population is the world's 12th biggest for drinking wine, consuming an average of 17.5 litres per person per year, or 23.3 bottles.

Stephen Brough, editor of the book, said: "The surprising finds this year are that there are two countries where house prices have gone up by more than us over the past decade; and that we spend the most per head on music.

"In other categories we are not as badly off as people think. Despite concerns over binge drinking, we are not, per head, among the world's biggest beer-drinking nations, and our carbon emissions per person are less than half those of Americans."