If you think happiness, success and health are all down to hard work, a healthy diet, and a lot of luck, you might be interested in the latest quality-of-life index released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Measuring which countries in the world provide the best opportunities for a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous life, the index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys with how happy people say they really are, to determine the quality of life in each country.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, being rich was listed as the most important factor in making us happy, but other factors such as crime, trust in public institutions, and the health and wellbeing of our family and loved ones also came into play.

Other indicators used to complete the index include geography, demography, social and cultural characteristics and the state of the world economy, and by piecing together all this information the EIU managed to collate a list of 80 countries titled the “where to be born in 2013” index.

According to the index, these are the top 10 countries in the world to be born in 2013:

1. Switzerland
2. Australia
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Singapore
7. New Zealand
8. Netherlands
9. Canada
10. Hong Kong

The United States came in at number 16, a joint position they share with Germany, and the United Kingdom came in at number 27, just below France and above the Czech Republic.

The worst country to be born in 2013 is listed as Nigeria, and despite their dynamic economies and growing wealth, the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China did not do as well as expected,  scoring 37, 72, 66 and 49 respectively.

So it seems our happiness and success is no longer down to the lottery of life, but rather where we are born, and if we want to ensure our children and grandchildren have a bright future, we all need to move to Switzerland!