Estonia ranked 32nd "best" country by Newsweek

TALLINN -- Newsweek, one of the world's largest and most influencial weekly magazines, has ranked Estonia the 32nd, Lithuania the 34th and Latvia the 36th "best" countries in the world.

The Newsweek listing ranked 100 countries based of five key factors - economy, political situation, quality of life, education and health.

Estonia's top ranking was in education, where the country was ranked an impressive 7th. That score was counterbalanced by health and quality of life, both of which saw the country in 42nd place.

Education was also the highest category in Latvia, which came in 25th in the area. In the economy ranking, by contrast, Latvia was 53rd.

Lithuania's score was boosted by its political environment ranking of 26th, counterbalanced by a health score of 62nd.

Topping the list overall was Finland, followed by Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and Lichtenstein. The lowest ranked countries were Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zamibia and Uganda.

Russia came in 51st, while the United States was in 11th and the UK 14th.

An interactive graphic of the listing can be found at http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html.