Canada has dropped to No. 6 on the UN Human Development Index, which ranks 177 countries each year in terms of health, education, life expectancy, income, poverty levels and environmental quality.

'Why get hung up on a point-zero-zero of a decimal when there are countries suffering?' -Joan Broughton of the UN Association in Canada

Canada held the top spot on the list from 1992 until 2001, when it dropped to No. 3. It took fifth place in 2005.

The index was part of the 440-page United Nations 2006 Human Development Report released Thursday, entitled Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis.

The report gave little indication on why Canada's ranking slipped — but its catalog of serious problems besetting many developing countries makes it clear that Canadians are still among the luckiest in the world.

"We're dancing on the head of a pin if we're complaining about slipping from fifth to sixth," Joan Broughton of the UN Association in Canada told CBC.ca on Thursday.

"It's a question of nuance between No. 2 and No. 10."

She cited Luxembourg, who was fourth in 2004, dropping to twelfth this year.

But it's the countries on the bottom of the list and the disparity between their conditions and the top of the list that should get the most attention, she added.

"Why get hung up on a point-zero-zero of a decimal when there are countries suffering?" she said.

Norway tops list for 6th straight year

Oil-rich Norway, with its generous welfare state, retained its status as the best country to live in for a sixth consecutive year, which prompted its aid minister to tell Norwegians to stop whining about wanting more.

The Scandinavian country of 4.6 million people is the world's third-largest oil exporter, after Saudi Arabia.

Norway topped No. 2 Iceland, followed by Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Japan and the United States.

'There are unsolved problems in Norway, but let us battle this culture of whining, and look at the future with optimism.'-Norwegian Aid Minister Erik Solheim

Despite wealth, high levels of education, low unemployment, and an economic boom, Norwegians often complain of high taxes and of weaknesses in their cradle-to-grave welfare state, such as waiting lists at hospitals and a shortage of public care for both children and the elderly.

"There are unsolved problems in Norway, but let us battle this culture of whining, and look at the future with optimism," Aid Minister Erik Solheim was quoted as saying in an interview with the Norwegian news agency NTB.

The five countries with the lowest scores were Guinea-Bissau in 173rd place, Burkina Faso as 174, Mali as 175, Sierra Leone as 176, and Niger 177. The report was unable to rank 17 countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, because there was insufficient data.

According to the study, Norwegians earn 40 times more than the study's lowest-ranked country, Niger, live almost twice as long, and have nearly five times the literacy rate.

Canada behind on women in politics

In what could be seen as a pertinent statistic, Canada ranked 11th overall in the index's gender empowerment measure, with women holding only 24.3 per cent of seats in Parliament.

The ranking comes on the same day as Liberal MP Belinda Stronach said a sexually charged comment by Alberta Premier Ralph Klein about her past relationship with Peter MacKay is exactly the kind of remark that puts women off entering politics.

With files from the Associated Press