Places Rated Moving to the Tropics — Places Rated: Undercurrent 04/1998

The newsletter International Living (January, 1998) says you ought to think about the overall quality of life, which they see as comprised of seven elements: cost of living, culture and recreation, economy, freedom, health, infrastructure, and safety (a variable they see as being as much as three times as important as other variables).

Here’s how their data ranks the diving countries:

Antigua......................................................... 55
Australia ........................................................71
Bahamas ....................................................... 64
Barbados ...................................................... 61
Belize ............................................................ 59
Caymans ....................................................... 63
Costa Rica .................................................... 61
Dominica ...................................................... 56
Fiji ................................................................ 55
Grenada ....................................................... 56
Honduras ..................................................... 54
Jamaica ......................................................... 54
Jurubtu ......................................................... 63
Maldives ....................................................... 53
Mexico ......................................................... 63
Palau ............................................................. 54
Papua New Guinea........................................ 42
St. Kitts and Nevis ........................................ 55
Seychelles ..................................................... 49
Solomon Islands ........................................... 54
Tonga ........................................................... 55
Tobago ......................................................... 61
Vanuatu ........................................................ 56
Western Samoa ............................................ 56

For comparison’s sake, note that the United States scores the highest rating, a 79. (Does anyone detect a bias here?) Afghanistan, on the other hand, logs in at 19. Cayman gets a low score because of its extremely high cost of living, although it gets a rating of 100 for “freedom,” a score that may deserve some reconsideration given the recent flap about a gay cruise boat.