Competition for the richest and largest economy in the world is never over between United State and China. But when it comes to even economic and sustainable development, as well as Human Capital Development (HCD), Norway is the right country. Norway has been among the three top most developed countries in the world for several years, and in some years including 2020, the very top nation.
In Norway, huge stocks of natural resources combined with a skilled labor force and the adoption of new technology made it a prosperous country since the 19th, 20th and 21st century. Norway is the third-largest exporter of natural gas in the world, which has helped it build a large sovereign wealth fund of $830 billion. The export of petroleum has helped bolster Norway’s economy, and the country’s residents are happy people with an average gross salary of $5,166 per month, making it one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Meaning that Norway has a high standard of living with high levels of human development.
Norway is rich with her oil and gas exports. It has received significant sums of wealth from petroleum exports since 1970s. It also has one of the largest reserves of seafood, hydro-power, lumber, minerals, natural gas, and freshwater.
As a matter of fact, Norway has the lowest unemployment rate. if you visit Oslo, you will find plenty of jobs in telecommunications and technology sector. Additionally, poverty rate is extremely low and wage rate is extremely high in Norway. The gap between poor and rich is significantly smaller, with a significant less population of less than 6 million people.
According to Wikipedia, “Norway has a very high standard of living compared with other European countries, and a strongly integrated welfare system.” Also, United Nations data for 2016, confirmed that “Norway together with Luxembourg (a small state) and Switzerland are the only three countries in the world with a GDP per capita above US$70,000 that are neither island nations nor microstates”.
Little wonder, Investopedia.com concludes that “Part of what signifies Norway as a developed country is a vast majority of workers (77.6%) are employed in the services sector rather than in agriculture or manufacturing. Norway’s HDI rank of 0.94 is the highest in the world.”
To corroborate the above commendations, below is a screenshot of the United Nations Development Report’s 2020 Statistical Update ranks of developed countries in the world based on their HDI ranking.
The following list is the top 20 countries on that list:
