Australia is the Best Nation Among OECD Members 3rd Year in a Row

Australia topped again for the third straight year the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Better Life Index. Australia beat Sweden and Canada, which came in second and third places.

The basis of the index is ranking of the world's developed economies on different criteria including jobs, income, environment and health.

The OECD index actually didn't name an overall top ranker, but by giving equal weight to each of the 11 categories, Australia would be number one, the OECD Web site said.

Its high ranking is mainly due to Australia's strong economy, evading the recession that hit hard other developed nations after the 2008 global financial crisis and has 21 years of continuous economic growth.

However, Australia didn't rank high in all the categories. For instance, under work-life balance, over 14 per cent of Australian employees complained of working very long hours, while the OECD average is only 9 per cent.

Aussies also registered a life-satisfaction grade of 7.2 out of 10, higher than the OECD average of 6.6, but lower than that of Mexico, Norway and New Zealand.

Average Aussie household net wealth is $32,178, while the OECD average is $40,516.

Rounding up the top 10 list are Norway, Switzerland, United States, Denmark, The Netherlands, Iceland and United Kingdom.

Ironically, Australia is also vying for the title world's worst-performing currency with the Syrian pound as its toughest competitor.

On Monday, the Australian dollar dropped to a one-year low after some positive comments on the U.S. economy by the head of the Federal Reserve. It fell to as low as USD 0.9662 in early hours, the weakest level since June 2012, but recovered and slid again to 0.9655.