Connecticut is the best state and the third best place in the world to live, according to a chart published in the Economist earlier this month that compared the development of U.S. states to all countries. It falls only behind ever-frozen Norway and Germany. A post on the magazine’s blog says:

The human development index (HDI) is an attempt to give a snapshot of a country’s success by combining three important indicators: health, education and wealth. The most recent global HDI ranking from the United Nations’ Development Programme places Norway top, with the United States fourth (out of 169 countries). But with over 300 [million] people living in 50 states, America varies greatly, so the American Human Development Project releases a state-based version of the HDI.

The Economist then combined these two indexes to see how U.S. states stack up. Behind Connecticut, the chart shows four states — Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York — and the District of Columbia ranking ahead of the third most-developed nation, Sweden. Overall, the United States has the eighth highest development index, just ahead of Canada and Japan.