South Korea Drops 4 Places in Ranking of Best Countries to Live in During the COVID Era

12th Place Among 53 Countries

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] South Korea dropped four places this month in the ranking of the best countries to live in during the COVID-19 era compared to a month ago.

According to Bloomberg's recently compiled January COVID-19 resilience ranking on the 31st, South Korea ranked 12th among 53 evaluated countries with an economic size of over 200 billion dollars.

South Korea was ranked 4th when this ranking was first compiled in November last year, but dropped to 8th in December due to the resurgence of COVID-19, and has now fallen another four places.

In the January ranking, New Zealand retained the top spot. Following were Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, China, Norway, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, all included in the top 10.

The recent decline in ranking is largely attributed to poor performance in COVID-19 vaccine-related indicators.

Bloomberg compiles 11 items each month, including confirmed cases per 100,000 people, COVID-19 fatality rate, deaths per 1 million people, vaccine acquisition rate relative to population (including contracts), lockdown severity, interregional mobility, and economic growth forecast, scoring each out of 100 points.

This evaluates how well major countries control COVID-19 while minimizing social and economic disruption.

Originally, there were 10 evaluation items, but from January, the number of vaccinated people per 100 population was added, reflecting the reality of COVID-19 vaccine rollout.