Standard of living refers to the level of
wealth, comfort, material goods and necessities available to a certain
socioeconomic class in a certain geographic area. The standard of living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of
employment, class disparity,
poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, hours of work required to purchase necessities,
gross domestic product,
inflation rate, number of holiday days per year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of
education, life expectancy, incidence of disease, cost of goods and services, infrastructure, national economic growth, economic and political stability, political and religious freedom, environmental quality, climate and safety. The standard of living is closely related to quality of life. In 2013, the
Human Development Index ranked the top six countries for quality of living as:
Norway,
Australia,
Switzerland,
Netherlands,
United States and
Germany.