A new study has revealed the best and worst countries to be a single woman in—and Australia’s position might surprise you.
The Compare The Market study compares 35 different countries across seven different metrics, including safety, cost of living, wage, attractions, happiness score, mortgage rates and wage gaps.
Unsurprisingly, multiple Scandinavian countries, which famously have a high liveability rating, make it into the top ten, with Iceland taking the top spot. Holding the highest liveability rating for single women with a score of 7.03/10, Iceland offers single women the benefits of a high safety rating, a high wage, strong happiness score and huge amount of local attractions. Other Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands, also made it into the stop ten.
Slovenia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Spain and Austria also made it into the top 10, holding the ranks of three, four, six, seven and ten respectively.
Australia, however, didn’t make it into the top ten, instead coming in 20th place. Compared to other countries, Australia underperformed in terms of safety, with a score of just 54.5/100, cost of living (AU$1605.48 monthly before rent) and mortgage credit interest rates (6.95%).
More positively, Australia offer a high score for average wage, attractions, happiness and liveability, which balanced some of the lower metric scores out to a liveability score of 4.75/10.
Compare the Market’s General Manager of Money, Stephen Zeller has expressed his disappointment at seeing Australia’s position on the list.
“This data shows us that a lot of places around the world still have a lot of work to do when it comes to improving liveability for single women, including us here in Australia,” he explained.
At the other end of the scale, Mexico was ranked the lowest with a liveability score of just 2.77/10, which seemed to be largely due to a low safety rating and low wage. The Republic of Korea, Latvia and Türkiye also found themselves at the bottom end of the scale, as perhaps more surprisingly, did the United States, which placed 30th. While the US enjoys a higher than average wage, they also have worse mortgage rates 6.07% and gender pay gap (16.86%).
While the stats aren’t looking great for Australia, it’s good news for anyone considering a move to a Scandinavian country in the near future.
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