11 Most Livable Countries in Africa

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When it comes to ranking the most livable countries in Africa, what would be the best way to gauge livability? In an economically-challenged region, should the sole deciding factor for a nation’s livability be economic competency?

Surely, it has got to be more complex than that. After all, there is more to what constitutes to a country’s livability. Different organizations gauge livability differently. For instance, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that appeared in our article – The 11 most livable cities in the world – used factors like governance, infrastructure, healthcare services, public transportation, and education among others.

For this list, we used the standards and rankings on the latest 2015 Human Development Index (HDI) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), released 16th December 2015.

most expensive places to visit in Africa 11 Most Livable Countries in Africa

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The HDI is an annual statistics that uses three key factors to measure a nation’s level of human development and livability: longevity (life expectancy at birth) index, education (mean years of education and expected years of schooling) index, and the income index measured via Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. The concept of the HDI was developed by Pakistani economist, Mahbub al Huq, and has been published by the UNDP annually since 1990. The statistics is often framed on the premise of how easily people can achieve their desires through what is available in their country. The HDI is also used to determine whether a country is developing, developed, or highly developed.

It is important to note that none of the countries listed here made it to HDI’s Very High Human Development category, and as such, the standards of what is ‘most livable’ in these African countries are relative to the rest of the region.

So, what are the most livable countries in Africa by Human Development Index (HDI) standards? Check out the rest of this list!

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