Russia has been ranked the world’s 95th healthiest country in a new index released by Bloomberg, behind most other nations in Eastern Europe.
Although alcohol consumption has sharply plummeted in recent years, obesity rates in Russia have been on the rise due to deteriorating eating habits and measles cases skyrocketed in the past year. Russia has announced plans to spend 1.7 trillion rubles ($26.3 billion) to accomplish President Vladimir Putin’s goal of improving health care by the time his latest term ends in 2024.
Russia placed just behind Cape Verde in Bloomberg’s 2019 Healthiest Country Index released this week, as cited by the RBC news website. The former Soviet nations of Belarus and Ukraine ranked ahead of Russia, in 81st and 93rd place respectively. Countries like Turkey (51st), Iran (69) and Venezuela (87) also placed better than Russia.
Spain topped Bloomberg’s ranking of 169 countries with a population of at least 300,000, based on health indicators and risk factors. Italy and Iceland were named the second and third-healthiest, while the United States ranked 35th.
The index takes into account several indicators, including life expectancy, access to clean water and sanitation. It downgrades nations for tobacco use and alcohol consumption, as well as obesity and basic vaccination coverage.
A total of six European economies grabbed top-10 spots, while Japan and Singapore ranked fourth and eighth each, Bloomberg said. Australia placed seventh and Israel was named the world’s 10th healthiest country.