Quality of life comparison

compared to

If you lived in Australia instead of Iceland, you would:

Health

be 32.4% more likely to be obese

In Iceland, 21.9% of adults are obese as of 2016. In Australia, that number is 29.0% of people as of 2016.

Economy

make 10.5% less money

Iceland has a GDP per capita of $66,500 as of 2023, while in Australia, the GDP per capita is $59,500 as of 2023.

be 52.3% more likely to live below the poverty line

In Iceland, 8.8% live below the poverty line as of 2017. In Australia, however, that number is 13.4% as of 2020.

Life

be 82.4% more likely to die during infancy

In Iceland, approximately 1.6 children (per 1,000 live births) die before they reach the age of one as of 2022. In Australia, on the other hand, 3.0 children do as of 2022.

Expenditures

spend 20.8% less on education

Iceland spends 7.7% of its total GDP on education as of 2020. Australia spends 6.1% of total GDP on education as of 2020.

spend 11.5% more on healthcare

Iceland spends 9.6% of its total GDP on healthcare as of 2020. In Australia, that number is 10.7% of GDP as of 2020.

Geography

see 5.2 times more coastline

Iceland has a total of 4,970 km of coastline. In Australia, that number is 25,760 km.

The statistics above were calculated using the following data sources: The World Factbook.

Australia: At a glance

Australia is a sovereign country in Australia-Oceania, with a total land area of approximately 7,682,300 sq km. Prehistoric settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia at least 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession of the east coast in the name of Great Britain (all of Australia was claimed as British territory in 1829 with the creation of the colony of Western Australia). Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the Allied effort in World Wars I and II. In recent decades, Australia has become an internationally competitive, advanced market economy due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s and its location in one of the fastest growing regions of the world economy. Long-term concerns include aging of the population, pressure on infrastructure, and environmental issues such as floods, droughts, and bushfires. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, making it particularly vulnerable to the challenges of climate change. Australia is home to 10 per cent of the world's biodiversity, and a great number of its flora and fauna exist nowhere else in the world. In January 2013, Australia assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term.
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How big is Australia compared to Iceland? See an in-depth size comparison.

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