The Economist magazine measures the quality of life around the world. It uses nine factors about the quality of life in a country, including GDP per capita, as an indicator. The table below shows the statistics for Ireland and the United States from 2005:
Country Quality of Life Ranking from The Economist Quality of Life Score (out of 10) GDP (per capita)
Ireland #1 8.333 $32,000
United States #13 7.615 $40,000
Which statement best explains why Ireland was rated higher than the United States in the quality of life index?
Ireland actually had a higher GDP than the United States if you take into account the population of each county.
Even though Ireland did not have the highest GDP, it must have rated very high in areas other than GDP.
The United States is too large to accurately measure quality of life statistics.
The Economist is based in Ireland, and the rank of each country is based on the opinion of the author.